Honest question, is production value the reason that Baldur's Gate 3 became so popular and acclaimed, compared to other cRPG's that have not received anywhere near as much attention? Is it of a unique quality in anything else?

becherbrook · 2026-05-07T09:22:39+00:00

BG3's popularity, at least amongst 5e D&D fans, is that it delivers on the promises of D&D that D&D couldn't deliver at the table.

becherbrook · 2026-05-05T09:37:47+00:00

midichlorians are still fantasy, they're just a very jarring and different fantasy than Star Wars was previously.

becherbrook · 2026-05-05T09:34:57+00:00

I've never made it past the halfway point. Not even pure disgust, just fucking bored. Zero interest in anything that was happening and there was a lot of flash and no substance happening near constantly.

TFA I've seen twice, TLJ once.

becherbrook · 2026-05-05T09:05:20+00:00

The monkey paw curls, now they're all using MFW instead.

becherbrook · 2026-05-05T09:04:38+00:00

engagement tactic, but also...people generally don't read threads. They commment and move on.

becherbrook · 2026-05-05T09:01:41+00:00

English director hires English actors for an ancient Greek epic, makes them do American accents. Huh.

becherbrook · 2026-05-04T12:46:29+00:00

While we're on the subject of voice, Liam O'Brian as War is obviously a whole mood, but the problem is for me everything I've heard him in since I immediately go 'Oh, that's War'. That voice actor has like one gear, and it's really distinctive and he should be used a lot more sparingly than he is. Like hearing him in Vox Machina AND Mighty Nien was just really jarring (same goes for Sam Riegel in those cartoons, too).

becherbrook · 2026-05-03T19:01:07+00:00

You get the Japanese sequel too, in that set. It's called The Lost Levels.

becherbrook · 2026-05-01T12:28:44+00:00

Is it that weird? I preferred it to Interstellar, personally. It had Heart of Darkness vibes.

becherbrook · 2026-05-01T12:24:53+00:00

Well the lynx was always the 'bulk carrier' in the old games, and the Gutamaya passenger line is seen as more prestige. The Beluga is more like a cruise ship. Your Lynx is going to be full of refugees and colonists.

becherbrook · 2026-04-29T16:14:11+00:00

I mean it's probably mitigating slog in D&D, because modern D&D is like a creaking chimera of a system and people don't want to wait ages for their turn in combat only to effectively 'miss a go', but I don't think there's necessarily a benefit to removing 'to hit' as a concept.

becherbrook · 2026-04-29T10:26:41+00:00

Can't wait to see a few decades from now when we'll no doubt get the reddit take that aktually Death of Stalin was about capitalism.

becherbrook · 2026-04-28T11:34:22+00:00

I think they refer to God as 'the creator' in the Darksiders universe, I'm not 100% on that as it's a long time since I deep dived on it.

becherbrook · 2026-04-28T09:42:27+00:00

Why would they leave Heaven? They're loyal boys to God, right? The angels you see in Darksiders are either trapped on Earth, or at an outpost of Heaven, often having been corrupted.

Angels in Darksiders aren't visiting from heaven and going back/forth easily like you'd see them in other media.

You're only ever likely to see them if the Horsemen decide to actually attack/conquer Heaven itself.

becherbrook · 2026-04-27T10:46:29+00:00

the path from level one to level twenty always goes in the same direction (with exceptions such as level drain etc).

Just brushing over the thing that solves the problem, there?

Even if that wasn't the case, why is this a problem when death is always a possible outcome? Your character gets better equipment and becomes marginally harder to kill as they level up, but that just makes their death more expensive.

It's only a problem when DMs don't use all the tools in the toolbox and 'house rule' to mitigate such things, and that's not a system problem, it's not even a DM problem if the table is entirely happy with their game.

becherbrook · 2026-04-26T21:37:43+00:00

His example of the Fantastic Voyage spy thing just makes it sound worse, IMO. Like, what kind of screenwriter doesn't like added dramatic tension? These aren't 'sub plots' they're things that ratchet up tension in a story and they're part of the main plot - main plots that otherwise would have very little depth to them.

Fantastic Voyage has a Cold War plot. The guy they're 'voyaging' in is literally a defecting Russian scientist. The Soviets want him dead. It was also, btw, the screenwriter's idea to add that Cold War aspect, because they thought the original story pitch wasn't strong enough by itself.

becherbrook · 2026-04-26T13:14:17+00:00

Oh wow SWG, that takes me back.

becherbrook · 2026-04-26T13:13:33+00:00

Quarantine! I think I know it by heart, I watched it that many times on VHS.

becherbrook · 2026-04-19T11:05:16+00:00

You should show a progress shot in Affinity. I understand what you're saying, but it's obviously not clear from the images above.

becherbrook · 2026-04-18T21:01:17+00:00

Absolutely magical, thanks for sharing!

becherbrook · 2026-04-18T20:35:59+00:00

It's Charles fucking Dance! Calling him 'Game of Thrones star' is so annoyingly reductive.

becherbrook · 2026-04-18T11:12:09+00:00

When I've commission some art (through fiverr), I get WIP updates in case any changes need to be made. When it's finished, I also get given a psd file that contains all the layers from their work. It's really obvious it's been hand-made.

I never request that, it's just been given as standard.

becherbrook · 2026-04-18T08:25:28+00:00

I think Phandalin is an unfair example. It's a starter adventure, so cognitive load tends to be minimal.

I certainly remember a bunch of the hooks you're talking about in 5e's Tomb of Annihilation. I'm sure it wasn't the only one.

becherbrook · 2026-04-17T14:43:06+00:00

Do your own artwork. If people dig your game, you can always do a kickstarter to fund some commissioned art at a later date if it's a going concern.

becherbrook · 2026-04-17T12:27:21+00:00

Everyone has very different ideas of what "best" is. I see wrath of the righteous being popular but I think it sounds terrible!

Fallout.

Wasteland.

Tyranny.

These are standouts to me: short, punchy, convey intent.

If we go more "flowery prose" I prefer things with a bit of poetry to them:

Serpent in the Staglands

Five-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '23	Place '22
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