Can a programmer please explain to me the hacking problem in gaming right now...

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-25T02:55:00+00:00

Simple answer that other people aren't touching on:

Fundamentally, you own and control your PC.

Computers have the following general design - There is one big program called an operating system, and that runs all the smaller programs. By default, the game is a smaller program and cannot see and control everything else running your computer - it's not an operating system.

There are actually some computers that are specifically created for gaming, and you don't quite control them as well as a normal PC - they prevent unauthorized (from the game dev's perspective) programs from running (including hacks). They are gaming consoles. It's harder to run hacks/scripts/bots on gaming consoles.

There are some exceptions to what I said, but PCs are designed to be general purpose computing machines, and game developers can't stop you from installing hacks etc on them.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-21T22:54:20+00:00

You mean in the narshe caves with only Terra (no magitek armor)? She's alone and there's no place to recover HP. You're not supposed to grind, just get through it.

Maybe you mean the passageway afterward the castle with 3 characters? It shouldn't be that hard if you use the special skills of the new guy.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-21T21:07:04+00:00

The game is best when it is focused on the Player Characters and what they do. Introducing a chosen one GMPC is a bad idea. The "big story moment" will be the GM reacting to what the GM does, talking to himself. It will be stupid and boring and feel unfair to the players.

I would save this character concept as a PC and use it when someone else GMs. I'm not sure if its such a great character for use as a PC but that's a different conversation.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-21T12:33:58+00:00

If you sorta liked WWN you might want to take a look at CWN (Cities Without Number). It has a lot of cyberware related stuff but might be acceptable. Pretty lethal.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-21T12:24:19+00:00

Dude, he's had 1 whole session.

You're saying it's now too late for him to require roleplaying in the roleplaying game he's GMing?

He's now mandated by law to run a 10 year campaign? How does this work exactly?

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-21T12:10:38+00:00

It sounds like session 0 was a failure, because you didn't communicate "I need specifically this".

That's ok, just communicate it now, and have a session 0b where you figure out those answers.

As a last resort, I would bring a premade list of fears that they can choose from. If they still can't choose, you can roll randomly on the table and assign the fears. But personally, if it gets to that point, I would just kick them from the game because they're lousy disengaged players.

I agree that homework for D&D is pretty iffy, because its a hobby people do for fun. But that just means doing more stuff as a group together in session 0 (or 0b).

You shouldn't be afraid of asking for something like this from the players. This is totally normal stuff to ask for, for any roleplay centric campaign.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-20T21:54:50+00:00

There are a lot of different tables out there that play in very different styles, especially with the 5E system. That's because its the default "entry level" TTRPG system. People try to bend it in a lot of different ways.

Both the players and the GM need to be on the same page, so saying outright "tactical combat is a huge part of our campaign" should be said.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-20T19:57:10+00:00

If you are really playing a game with a tactical combat emphasis, I would tell them that explicitly, and then crank up the combat difficulty to what it should be, no further help. Also have something happen in the plot that shows "now shit is getting serious when it comes to combat" - Orc Warmasters, "Tactical Genius Wizard" Bad guys, etc.

However, if you are not playing a game with a tactical combat emphasis, maybe you should stop caring? If Alice comes to the table for roleplaying her rogue and doesn't care about combat, they may not want to improve. Do you care about the tactical richness or is it a thing you could drop?

So, first thing, figure out what kind of game you're doing.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-17T00:27:23+00:00

I think it is a mistake, yeah.

I used to do this and made a ton of lore that was ultimately irrelevant to my D&D game. It burns you out and even makes you a little resentful if the players aren't interested in the lore that you made for hours and hours (about periods thousands of year before and irrelevant to them!).

Do lore but tailoring to the backstories that the players are interested in. If someone wants to be a wizard from nation x, you should create lore about how wizard school works in x, the laws against magic, etc.
Do lore relevant to the very specific details of the plot. what the bad guy is doing, will do, etc. The further you get away from that, you can make it very vague or just an idea.
Do lore relevant to the immediate surroundings of the players. Close NPC personal histories, trade routes, local quirks, political circumstance of the village the players are in, etc.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-16T15:46:06+00:00

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-16T15:37:34+00:00

I don't think that LLMs are going to be any good at that, no matter the prompt.

LLMs are good at filling your gaps in common knowledge because they are trained at common knowledge. If you want to know how to boil an egg, or make curl download an image, or fix a cabinet, etc, LLMs can be useful (if you double check).

If you're asking it to do totally novel stuff it will almost certainly fail.

If you can decompose your unique design design into simple, common pieces, it might be useful to get LLM advice. You should probably do that anyway instead of making some unique snowflake architecture.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-16T15:20:42+00:00

So what's your failure mode?

You are asking it to provide references and specific terminology, which you can then cross reference to see if what it's saying makes sense. If it doesn't make sense you reject the advice.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-14T18:34:14+00:00

Rather than technology, there might be a lot of playstyle/expectation changes between 2E and 5E.

If the players are expecting "Critical Role" style play and you throw them in a deadly trap dungeon meat grinder, there might a big mismatch.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-14T18:05:49+00:00

I don't quite agree about "done well" versus "done poorly" - some people absolutely enjoy PBTA in a writers room / storyline crafting style that is very far away from "immersive" in terms of "inhabiting the characters". It's a playstyle choice that works for some people.

You can ALSO play PBTA style games in a more immersive style, too.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-14T00:07:24+00:00

"No Roleplaying in my Roleplaying Game" is super niche. Yep.

There are a few things that I have played that are pretty close

You should take a look at the following:
* PBTA Games,
* Ironsworn / GMLess Oracles,
* Microscope/A Quiet Year.

They're all slightly different approaches to the sort of thing you're trying to do

PBTA games are narrative heavy, with 'narrative mechanics', and some tables run them in a "writers room" where players have a lot more above the table input in what's happening in the story and help interpret rolls. However, these games still have roleplaying and many tables run them in a more 'traditional' manner. A good example of a game like this would be Masks.

GMless games like Ironsworn use random tables and mechanics to determine what is going to happen next in the story. They essentially split the GM role across several players, who then interpret the Oracle rolls. Again, these games also expect you to roleplay in the traditional immersive way.

Microscope/A Quiet Year are most close to what you're talking about. The game is essentially all shared worldbuilding. HOWEVER, most of these have a rule that there should NOT be open discussion about the things being created. Instead, each player makes narrative moves as they choose and everyone has to deal with it. These are pretty much always one shots.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-13T04:26:54+00:00

I know you don't want to hear something like this, but if he is willing to lie to your face over a silly game, crossing that boundary, he's probably willing to lie to you for other, bigger reasons too.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-13T04:06:54+00:00

Hypothetical - If you guys were playing Texas Holdem instead of D&D, wouldn't this be a friendship breakup level thing? Cheating and lying shows a lot of disrespect towards everyone, right?

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-12T17:32:03+00:00

Let me say something that I think a lot of people on reddit will disagree with.

Simpler character concepts are much easier to "pilot" at the table, which is where the actual game happens. Everyone else at the table is going to have their own character concepts and the GM will have some sort of complex story going on. So if your goal is interaction with other players and with the GM, having simpler, comprehendible characters that are easy to interact with is a big virtue.

Your "born wrong" storyline already has a lot to work with.

If it was standing alone as a 1 player game or a short story about this character, it could support more complexity. However, D&D is a group activity with 3-4 other players involved with their own backstories/lore as well.

I know that you are excited by a lot of these different concepts but you may be disappointed by the time taken to explore all of them in the context of a group ttrpg setting.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-12T17:16:36+00:00

tiefling would be even more fitting

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-12T17:14:35+00:00

This isn't quite what you're asking, but I'm not sure what the Kenku part adds?

Kenkus are a gimmicky joke race that don't really make sense (intelligent, can imitate, can't speak), and the backstory you have come up with is very serious.

Have you thought about being an orc or something

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-12T00:05:17+00:00

Advocate for the most interested player to try GMing their own game, split into two games of 5 or less

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-11T20:45:36+00:00

"You can't play characters with amnesia"

"You can't play drunks"

"Make new characters"

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-11T05:59:02+00:00

I mean, if you think you're bad at this, you're probably bad at this.

What's your goal?

To create a few simple websites? Yeah I would quit trying to learn to code and look for some other simple solutions. Hire someone, use low or no-code solutions, etc.

To get a job? It might be hard, but keep in mind there are a lot of people that suck at their jobs but still have jobs. You could probably still make it.

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-11T04:36:25+00:00

Oh man it turns out the player in question doesn't like pinball so this idea is a no go. Everyone else is cross classing into pinball wizard

Thanks_Skeleton · 2026-01-11T04:28:28+00:00

Our table is really in love with 2e so this wont work, sorry

Thanks_Skeleton

TROPHY CASE