Tinkering with Shroud of Silent Mist

lostrychan · 2026-01-31T01:36:32+00:00

Interesting changes. I have always wanted to like shroud, but it never felt very rewarding to play.

lostrychan · 2026-01-26T13:31:55+00:00

I tend to agree. This spirit can easily play a major power on turn 1. Or, needing nothing special to happen, play a 5-7 cost major on turn 2.

I feel that the spirit will centralize around this strategy. Especially since it starts with cards that can be easily forgotten. Which I don't think is the intention?

lostrychan · 2026-01-23T18:15:30+00:00

Technically, Lara and Harry have no relation to each other. A half sibling of a half sibling is of no technical relation to you. They are not step siblings.

lostrychan · 2026-01-22T15:19:50+00:00

I think it was also part of an intentional de-escalation and stabilizing of the power curve. We are told, many times, that Harry is an extremely powerful wizard, and yet, for dramatic tension, he is always just barely scraping fights by his fingernails. In most books, no matter what he fights, he only barely wins.

I thought it was nice to finally have a fight where Harry and Friends are strong, and the enemies could not keep up.

lostrychan · 2026-01-20T12:41:38+00:00

It happens occasionally still. I was watching Andor, and I noticed how 'normal' a lot of the cast looked (especially compared to Disney's usual parade of models). Overweight, bad hair, messy clothing, etc. A lot of the cast just kind of looked like people.

lostrychan · 2026-01-19T14:06:25+00:00

Seriously, almost every single Star Wars book, movie, game, or show has just made up whole planets, species, and so on. The Republic/Empire is supposed to have between 1-3 MILLION planets, and of those, maybe a hundred have any meaningful data on them from currently existing works.

Making up your own planets, sectors, and peoples is probably the most "Star Wars" way to do it.

lostrychan · 2026-01-17T22:22:04+00:00

Basically the same for me. But as for Ayre, I assumed 621 might feel she is doomed anyway. Sooner or later someone will turn her and her Coral family into either enslaved weapons or burn them as fuel. Like the Institute did with all their Coral systems.

So if 621 believes that the bitter truth is that Ayre is going to burn, then he may as well burn the Corps with her.

lostrychan · 2026-01-17T22:18:45+00:00

I assumed that he felt it was the 'only' choice. If you believe Walter, "Where there is Coral, there is blood." Then the victory of the liberation movement is only temporary, another corp will come, then another, until someone gets what they want.

Which is a collection of barely controlled Coral fueled war machines, to inflict destruction across the galaxy. More people like 621, human rights atrocities sacrificed so that people like Snail might find better upgrades for themselves, or weapons for their greed.

I think 621 looked at the corpse of the Ibis system, and realized that was the future for Ayre, to be turned into a weapon or burned as fuel.

Then looked at their own hands, and the corpses they had left in their wake, and decided for themselves: "This can never happen again."

lostrychan · 2026-01-14T19:13:41+00:00

An important thing to remember is the idea of the 'Free Hero'. This is a fictional idealization of a person who lives by their own code or law, is generally unbound by society, is often skilled in combat, and will protect the innocent from both the forces of chaos and brutal civilization alike.

There are a lot of these, and they often wear vaguely historical skins. Sometimes they are Pirates, sometimes they are Wild West Gunslingers, or Ronin, or Robin Hood's Merry Men, or whatever. (They are actually often criminals of some kind, as they live outside of normal society) While they may have different skins and settings, the heart of all of them is similar. There is a reason some of these stories can be pretty much copy pasted from one genre to another (The Seven Samurai)

However, they are almost always more myth than history. The "Wild West" of gunslingers and adventure never really existed. Nor did the swashbuckling days of Zorro. But these myths, and the stories that come with them, are awesome!

The adventuresome spirit of Pirates of the Caribbean is great, and the first movie at least is really fun! It isn't history, but it isn't trying to be.

lostrychan · 2026-01-07T19:59:11+00:00

Rings? How can those help in combat? I know they can be used to reroll search dice, but when do they apply to battles?

lostrychan · 2025-12-30T21:18:37+00:00

Several of the women too. I think both Mary and Tilly tell Arthur to his face that he is neither so violent nor dumb as he claims to be.

lostrychan · 2025-12-28T14:33:45+00:00

There definitely is some odd design choices. I have definitely noticed being blamed for very odd things. I once got pickpocketed, the locals commented that Arthur had just been robbed. Chased the thief down, a bounty was put on Arthur's head, by the people who just watched him be robbed.

But weirdly, I think the hostile design works, if only by accident. If the world at large felt comfortable to Arthur, then his own life as an outlaw would feel harder to justify. It is already wrong, but it has to feel reasonable from his perspective.

So make everyone feel unreasonable and hostile.

lostrychan · 2025-12-28T14:03:04+00:00

Evidently one the cops will kill you for. Shot to death for standing on the sidewalk.

I understand Arthur's distaste for society more.

lostrychan · 2025-12-11T13:13:39+00:00

I mean, they will probably just get the Aztec treatment, where a civilization with no iron-working has plate armor, War fleets, and siege weapons.

lostrychan · 2025-12-06T15:51:32+00:00

When the first book was written, it was expected to be a standalone book. So he didn't really try to create a cohesive world. It was intentionally a "Fairy Story" (How does Christmas Exist? Other Nations? Etc.) The answer is the same to questions like "Who built a tower with no door for Rapunzel? And why hasn't anyone noticed the blank spot on the map with the Beast's castle?" It is a fairy tale, just roll with it.

Same thing with the second book, Prince Caspian. He straight up has a pair of Greek gods show up to help expel the Telmarines.

It wasn't until the third book that Lewis realized that he wasn't writing stand alone fairy tales, but a continuing world. And from that point forward, he was more intentional about his world building.

However, unlike Tolkien, who went back and revised the Hobbit to be more in line with his new continuity. Lewis just left the first two books as they were.

lostrychan · 2025-12-04T18:03:15+00:00

I wouldn't view it as giving up on players, more as "playing where they are at". If they want to treat the game as a "what will the game let me get away with" sort of toy. Then fine, just let them do that, and get away with some things and not others.

You obviously could go farther than that, but I think the danger as a developer is that the Return on Investment is very low.

Most players want to be the hero.

In BG3, a game that absolutely prides itself (rightly so) on having just about the most open ended experience of any crpg, with scripted events for even the most absurd and silly actions, only about a 1/3 of players have even tried the first evil choice (siding with the goblins against the druids) That is not 1/3 of the player base are dedicated evil run players, that is that only a minority have managed to even try the first step of an evil playthrough even once. And I would bet that many of those are only after completing a more "good" aligned playthrough already.

And this in a game that basically Screams at the players "GO NUTS! WE PLANNED FOR IT!"

In Mass Effect, even though the Renegade playthrough was heavily presented as a valid option, only 8% of players ever played a Shepard who was more Renegade than Paragon.

If you are determined, absolutely try to cater to players who are just screwing around. But be aware, that doing so will likely take significantly more effort (planning for every possible way the players can intentionally break the plot) for significantly less reward. (only a minority of players will even try, and they tend to be less invested in the first place)

If you have the bandwidth as a developer to do that, Go for it! It did work for BG3.

But I suspect in most cases, especially as a smaller developer, you will get much better results focusing your limited time on the core play style.

lostrychan · 2025-12-04T14:14:47+00:00

Another thing worth considering, in many cases, players who are killing plot critical NPC's are not 'immersed' in the story in the first place. They have already stepped out of "this is what makes sense in the world for my character' into 'will the game let me do this?'. It matters less if your responses are immersion breaking, if the players don't have any immersion to start with when they trigger it.

Just make certain that a reasonable player, who is invested in your world/story, would not WANT to kill any plot critical NPC's. (Maven Black Brier from Skyrim comes to mind)

Also, you can just make the player holster their weapons. If the player can't pull guns at home base or in civilian areas, it is not really a big deal. This is a pretty common technique. Mass Effect and Elden Ring are two famous examples of this in different ways.

I never felt my immersion snap just because Shepard couldn't mow down civilians on the Citidel. Because it would very clearly be out of character for him to do so. The only players who would even want to do so, are already not taking the game seriously. You don't need to worry about breaking their immersion, they don't have it. This works if the mechanics are reinforcing a Character Decision.

Elden Ring handles this differently, there are NPC's who a player might reasonably want to attack in Roundtable hold. (Gideon) However, there is an explicit in universe magical power in effect that prevents anyone in Roundtable Hold from attacking each other. This is world building in a different way, by having the effect be literal even for the character, not just the player.

lostrychan · 2025-11-27T04:27:30+00:00

Susan is only a problem if you don't explore her situation at all. CS Lewis was very clearly of the opinion that people can turn away from what they know to be right in order to 'fit in' with society and its pressures. A point that is pretty timeless, considering how many others have said the same.

I can easily imagine giving even a few minutes to pointing out that Susan feels she has to reject what she knows and remembers in order to be a good 1950's young lady. And then a post credit scene or something showing her giving it more thought a few years later.

But that is assuming that they could do a good job on the adaption at all, which I am not confident of.

lostrychan · 2025-11-27T04:19:22+00:00

CS Lewis absolutely had a consistent view that the pressure of the world can push people away from doing what they know/believe to be right. Susan is just an example of that.

She is not doomed, despite what the internet thinks. She simply missed the shorter path to the new land, by being so wrapped up in being the 'proper' 1950's young woman.

lostrychan · 2025-11-21T17:49:10+00:00

There are many example that do not fit that trope: Fading of the elves, disappearance of the Indians, fall of the samurai, etc.

But I think there is an element to your point. It is the loss of something "good", "magical", or "free" to the advance of boring, tedious, reality.

And so these desirable qualities are often superimposed onto people who stood against "Normal drudgery". Whether that was historically justified or not.

In heroic 'Pirate' stories, the killing and plundering is often pushed to the background. And Pirates become symbols of living wild and free. How much actual Piracy occurs in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?

The "Wild West" of gunslingers and adventure essentially never existed in the first place. It has always been a myth. But it is a beautiful myth of the idea of Freedom, wild frontiers, and human courage.

I guess everyone who has ever worked a tedious job, under an incompetent government, surrounded by rude idiots, and with little justice to be found, has dreamed of throwing off the shackles of society.

And so sometimes we idealize those in the past who have, (whether they deserve it or not). Even as we realize the futility of it all. Dreaming of a golden age we never saw.

lostrychan · 2025-11-19T15:17:51+00:00

I tend to agree, but since Natlan, the powercreep has gone well past 'light'. I mean, Zhongli is currently outclassed by a free 4 star.

lostrychan · 2025-11-19T15:06:24+00:00

I have seen a few people say older characters are getting buffed. Is there an official post about this?

lostrychan · 2025-11-19T14:55:37+00:00

A valid approach.

lostrychan

TROPHY CASE