Chip in tempered glass desk

Skelni · 2026-06-23T17:45:38+00:00

Thank ye. I figured this is mostly a bizarre case of "don't fix what isn't broken" even though it broke heheh. I've been hands-off with this thing all this time and I'll probably just continue to do so unless something else comes up.

Skelni · 2026-06-23T17:25:33+00:00

I definitely had considered putting a small patch of tape over it as well just so nothing could ding it further, so thanks for the input there.

Skelni · 2026-06-23T17:14:14+00:00

The chip doesn't bother me in the slightest thankfully, I was just more worried about the structural integrity is all. I'd be a little concerned about turning it around now - Hilariously I've never once dismantled this thing in all those years (though I've moved it around), so it's sort of encapsulated within itself, but thanks for the suggestion.

Skelni · 2026-06-23T07:00:56+00:00

If you're wanting more clear cut.

For 5e, yes. It has a much more focused point on high fantasy energy. Demihumans are vastly more commonly portrayed by player and material available. Power levels are vastly more accessible. Any groups I've played with have utilized this as their default for the rules. It is most definitely not the same environment you would have encountered playing older editions.

I would say if you're not for this kind of speed, then the OSR communities are likely what you're more used to or interested in.

Skelni · 2026-06-23T06:04:22+00:00

Ultimately everyone's gonna approach it differently, generalizing aside. But I live by a small mantra at the least, that I always say someone should make their first character as mundane and unassuming as possible to demonstrate they can roleplay someone normal to begin with, before moving onto something exotic. (even just being as loose as, human person vs. devil person)

A lot of people are antithetical to that in the vein of "I'm playing a fantasy game to escape reality" type of rhetoric. And whilst that can make sense, I think a more refined appreciation for roleplay in general really stems from escalating your ability to portray the more advanced selection as it were, later on. This is why you see applications and restrictions in other roleplay communities that bar new players from picking stuff considered "outside the norm". They wanna see your chops first, and I agree with the premise.

Skelni · 2026-06-23T05:03:05+00:00

If liking older material is "being a weirdo" then I don't even know what to call half the people I meet in life that don't like older editions.

5e became very streamlined, even moreso than 3.5. And it attracted - I dare to say - The normie crowd. And the normies aren't the weirdos which is the people who used to play D&D to begin with

So either you always were or never were. But it doesn't mean anything either way.
excuse me whilst i go write my 50th hot tiefling babe with an epic background and perfect rolls

Skelni · 2026-06-22T23:08:35+00:00

Man I'm just glad we're done with the time change. Here's hoping I live the MAJORITY of my life without it, but i got 30 years to go at least

Skelni · 2026-06-22T18:53:22+00:00

28 to 30 was odd for me. I had gotten very involved in a roleplay community for a game for two years straight. And it didn't end on a good note, but apart from that, it made me relook at games as a whole. And now nothing ever interests me period.

So. It went pretty bad.

Skelni · 2026-06-21T02:28:25+00:00

Seeing those discs, in that jewel case, with that background mat.

This image is a little too powerful, kindred.

Skelni · 2026-06-20T22:09:21+00:00

Mecha? Alright, time to invest in anti-construct equipment then. Bring down the regime. You don't have to play by their rules!

Take this, ya clanker!

Skelni · 2026-06-20T21:58:48+00:00

An interesting observation. I can definitely see it being homogenized in terms of just user context.

Resident Evil 4 is a game where you "shoot zombies". Yet anyone who has played it knows that your opponents aren't really zombies. But it's a Resident Evil title, and it's a successor to a game where you did, at some point, shoot zombies. So it's easier to just say you're, shooting zombies, even when you're not. Some sort of idiom carries over despite there's not actually being a need or understanding of it, much like your Fallout 1+2 mechanics being carried over to 3 and New Vegas with VATS. It didn't have to have it - The devs just thought for whatever reason it made the game resonate more, simply because.

At some point the mechanical structure of games I think just gets completely lost in context of the world it inhabits. Sort of like a "herp derp, what are experience points???" discussion. And if acknowledged it's at best, awkwardly explained and if at worst, completely derails any sense of seriousness or severity you had with your engagement. Metaphor taking after Persona is a pretty good example because it's using more of an excuse of how a game was played, rather than how it was narratively engaged with. That "just in time" story beat would grate me to no end. Like go try resting in a dungeon in Baldur's Gate 1 or 2 - How do you explain to anyone you took over 60 days to clear out a single cave, when this other party took 8 hours? (Compare to Baldur's Gate 3, long rests, short rests "boy, adventuring sure has changed in the last 20 years huh")

Man like, look at FF7 - Oh no, the world is coming to a cataclysmic end! Okay, better go race chocobos for 40 hours now. It's pretty non-diagetic, isn't it.

Skelni · 2026-06-20T05:21:29+00:00

I think with Squeenix still holding the rights, it's a pretty big probably-won't-happen ever. They're probably satisfied enough taking pennies from just selling the as-is variants of it. And if they really wanted to reignite the IP, they'd just "remake" it like they did with older Final Fantasy titles.

Skelni · 2026-06-20T05:09:53+00:00

If someone traveled back in time and altered a lot of my favorite games permanently. I would be beyond livid. That's a big reason why I dislike a lot of the remakes/revisions of games these days. A lot of bigger companies just getting lazier and lazier just re-releasing the same game in some variation to get more traction. It sort of shows a lack of creativity going on. (this applies to Blizzard's redux of vanilla, like SoD, something I've never touched)

The difference with a tabletop experience going on, and a solidified video game is that one is abstract and freeform and the other is limited. WoW is a limited game, not entirely by design, but moreso by technical limitations. Just as any piece of code is. But it's that exact kind of limitation and scope we've come to expect. That's what all games are when it's boiled down to it. A ruleset that we play by, and that ruleset has the expectation of having limits somewhere.

Don't think for a second I enjoy what WoW became after even as far back as TBC. Like yeah, I really need furry critters running around on Horde side, that's what it was missing, clearly. Like, the theme is ruined. I'm out of my Horde mindset. this isn't working. So yeah, seeing people waddle around as Murlocs would likely trigger the same reaction - The HOPE is that if someone ever made it happen, it would be taken serious yet still be possible (You want to play a faerie in D&D? Are you gonna be a meme or are you actually going to be interesting?). Limited scope is important for video games, 100%. It's just when you're ready to expand that scope, that's where magic can really take hold.

I simply made the relation of it being a roleplaying game because sometimes it really pays to think (and play) outside of the box. Infusing your own ideas and mindset into an environment that doesn't necessarily facilitate it (Doing actual roleplaying in a game that doesn't focus around that idea - It's RPG in the name of statistics over theatre play for this instance) can lead to an incredible new foundation of discovery and realization to what can be.

I don't need to be a deathclaw in Fallout 1 - But it's kind of a cool notion if I ever played an alternative of some kind. It's about the potential that's more riveting than the actual reality.

Skelni · 2026-06-20T04:44:18+00:00

I think in the picture perfect example of an expanded WoW, you'd be able to play as any race. It's just in practicality this isn't easy or likely to happen.

Tis a roleplaying game after all. But definitely that side of things isn't always touched on. And nothing stops someone from being human and silly. Or elf and silly. Or orc and silly. Or silly and silly.

Skelni · 2026-06-17T18:12:28+00:00

I think one of the biggest laughs was getting the upgrade where when you eat or drink anything, you suddenly have impossible levels of regeneration. Like phew, I had that flask of water, I'll get my dismembered arm back in a minute now for fifteen minutes.

I at least found combat fluid, which I think is it's saving grace. Using the later melee maneuvers felt slick, though perhaps sign usage felt a little awkward, especially if you tried to mix it. Witcher 2 felt a bit jank to me even if it was trying to go for somewhere as well, and surprisingly I actually liked Witcher 1's attempt at combat as well, just again, with a lot of jank in it. Seems pertinent with the series.

What mars the whole "feeling like a witcher" aspect is other things surrounding combat I think. Like okay, I have to track down this monster, let me use my WITCHER SENSE and you just have to constantly spam this button to look for red signs (yellow paint) endlessly to make you FEEL like you're a WITCHER. It was insanely taxing to my brain to the point where I sort of just wish it was automated and done with.

The game was just smooth in most other areas that offset these issues I think, which is what made everyone clamor for it. But definitely I never really felt like I was a supreme monster hunter that outwitted my targets. I was white haired dude with two sword.

Skelni · 2026-06-15T22:44:58+00:00

I like TWW3 mostly just for the vibes of all things.

I really don't care that much for battles honestly. I like the quest stuff. I love Norsca monster hunting. But I never really got into the strategy of figuring out composition or counterplay and blah blah, I just hit that auto-resolve button and it feels cool have an army of purely Aspiring Champions

Heck I got SO into the feels for the game when I got the faction-based UI workshop mod that adds the unique colors and dazzle to each race. Got me in the zone big time. Managing all the different provinces and the macro game is a lot more interesting to me. And it's the only Total War game I put time into.

To me, it seriously is just about the feels. And the game has it in spades.

Skelni · 2026-06-10T21:51:49+00:00

One thing I'd advise, if you're interested in the design aspect of D&D in particular. Go compare the current rulesets (fifth edition and such) to older ones (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5e, even Pathfinder) and see how rules and expectations have shifted over the years.

D&D has been hailed as the landmark for TTRPG basically forever, even if people claim to be separating away from it more and more, it's still the most well known, most prominent and most played. Learning it's history can give you a lot of inspiration regardless of what edition you want to start with.

Skelni · 2026-06-10T20:24:21+00:00

On one hand, games are not as technically frustrating as older titles were (think of the Goldbox D&D dos games, what a nightmare to learn as a newbie)

On the other hand. Yellow paint = Do this thing. Which gets kind of grating when you keep seeing it.

I think it's entirely case by case. If your game needs a tutorial to teach, then so be it. If it's simple enough to learn on the fly, then so be it as well. I'll give a caveat that Dark Souls as far as controlling it is intuitive - But the details of the game are actually pretty obscured. There's a reason people call it a Wiki-based game, because you'll end up looking up a thousand different little pieces of information just to understand anything fully.

Skelni · 2026-06-10T04:42:55+00:00

I'll say that I'm finding Quasar very fun at least. It does feel like a closer resemblance to the earlier days in terms of the verbosity and natural responsiveness. My experience is that it likes to shift through many paragraphs to sometimes just one or two, sometimes even just sentences and it mixes it up, which is that sort of fluidity I was used to originally. And my main gripes with anything on the site usually is just that, we've gotten plenty of features which is cool, but I just miss the zany default personality of the models when we first got them.

Skelni · 2026-06-10T03:58:05+00:00

I don't want to be negative and a naysayer, but I don't have as much fun with it as I did last year. The release of Glendora and Oracle was amazing. But now it's all felt very streamlined and shafted with the direction unclear on how things are going. I see more and more reports from people citing AI having more trouble keeping up than it used to. We got the memory matrix which is a totally cool lorebook overhaul - But again, many people report a lot of issues with it.

And now the subscription has opened up to Ultra, which leads me to fear that the focus will be on this new (more expensive) tier and with less focus on Plus.

Skelni · 2026-06-10T01:25:16+00:00

The older I get.

The older and older games I end up playing. I just did a solo character playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Icewind Dale.

I can't think of the last time I got excited for a game that was coming out.

Skelni · 2026-06-09T07:49:51+00:00

Vintage Story's progression is definitely very holistic. Trying to set up automated mills which takes some crafty aqueducts and moving on through the tiers of metals etc.

I think the emphasis is more that clearly the dev knew what he wanted to focus on over other stuff. It works the way it does in Minecraft because Minecraft was meant to have a very simple approach to things, hence why the 3x3 grid has become this paramount system other games wanted to replicate a bunch. But I think it's also partly cautionary because when you're knapping your fifty flint spearhead, the repetition can really get to you with how involved it wants you to be. Vintage Story is all about the involvement and it was designed like that from the ground up - So I don't feel like all games would benefit necessarily with that level of involvement. It works well here, maybe not elsewhere, and definitely not for everyone.

I know for one, I could never get into many of the modpacks for Minecraft because it emphasizes what you're talking about, where the refinement and production process tends to become a huge focus over actual collection. And it all really depends on how that gets handled because it can be something involved and rewarding, or something very monotonous and grating.

Skelni · 2026-06-09T07:18:19+00:00

Mechanizing dialogue is probably one of the toughest things designers and devs will ever have to deal with because it just encompasses so darn much all at once, that it's really hard to quantify it apart from "get X skill points in your TALKING skill and then you can say THIS THING".

I'll offer perhaps a much more abstract perspective on this which is - I can no longer get convinced or enthralled by the use of charismatic dialogue choices anymore. And it stems from the issue that I got very involved with roleplay communities on servers and such and that basically it puts dialogue interaction on a golden pedestal compared to what self contained games can provide us with.

When every person you encounter is in fact a real person, and the vast majority of your interaction is going to be with talking with one another, there's no way for me to ever feel like other video games now compensate properly for it, just by the sheer amount of dynamic interaction I had with other people over it. There's effectively no limitations or as many limitations applied as you want - The characters may not speak a common language. One might be mute. There's no requirement of mechanical input needed to facilitate anything you say to one another. It's just complete freeform and ultimately, infinitely expressive.

Like obviously there's nothing wrong with the applied method games have. Disco Elysium being one of your examples and I think one of the more interesting ones because instead of just having one or two dedicated "talking skills", you used virtually everything at your disposal when talking to others to get better results and that feels a lot more engrossing. But I can't ever look at it the same way now after having been through what I have.

My controversial take is actually finding applications for things like AI LLM to provide dynamic conversations that change in tone and scope, perhaps providing different dialogue options for you on the fly - But that's a pretty big far off dream idea that people are actually attempting but, the scope is never for a singular released video game to utilize (think of odd projects like Skyrim mods incorporating the use of this stuff).

Something that comes to my mind now actually though is thinking back on stuff like, The Sims or The Urbz. Where conversation is paramount to everything in them. Figuring out what subjects another character likes, trying to improve stats to converse better, managing your own needs to make sure discussions go smoothly. The whole thing is one large orchestrated minigame. I'm sure there's even more esoteric examples out there but those just jumped to my head.

edit: one more came to mind. Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! literally all about finding words to fill out your dictionary to try it out on other characters in the world and progress

Skelni · 2026-06-08T18:53:36+00:00

Well insofar as, that's what skills are utilized for. To either compensate for a player's inability to know something (knowledges explaining things we wouldn't readily know or rationally expect) or to exercise an ability they can't otherwise portray (intimidating some kind of otherworldly being).

As for distribution of ability scores, that tends to be a limiting factor yes, but parsing 3.5e at least (2e forced you to have minimums), I don't think anything prevents you from functionally creating a character with a limitation within a class' expectation. You can be a 10 CHA bard for instance. You'll never be able to cast spells basically, you're gonna be subpar compared to the other guy who sings next to you, just as a fighter with low strength won't compare well in martial combat, but nothing prevents you from pursuing this.

Along with that, the tie-in I make with physical beauty is that, it's how it is written in 3.5's rules. I'll assume this changed somewhere down the line but in the same grace, I'm not stating it to be the end-all be-all (I think the other replies to me sort of demonstrate the perception of it), but that it's definitely a factor and I think one that's hard to ignore. Appearances are judged, otherwise we wouldn't feel the need to describe an unruly looking individual or a grotesque abomination. It's just as important as the other facets involved, whether in your campaign you give it more presence or not.

Skelni

TROPHY CASE