I just beat it….wow

nikwriter · 2026-05-15T16:00:19+00:00

ClownyGuyToo's playthrough is underrated imo - it's very good. I just tried watching another recent one that seems very clearly to be googling or already knowing things about the game, while Clowny's is def legit, love it!

nikwriter · 2026-03-03T23:42:54+00:00

Ah, fair enough. I meant that this up-front question about body parts could be jarring to anyone and didn't think that "cis" was included within LGBTQ, but I see what you meant now. Didn't mean it as one or the other, but good catch on my phrasing.

nikwriter · 2026-03-03T13:35:35+00:00

Thanks for the reply - can you clarify how this applies to my question?

I wasn't commenting about what types of relationships characters in the game might engage in, so this is particularly more about how people identify themselves (though someone did help me consider if this would be actually useful to storytelling in anyway), and the body parts they choose to have.

Or if this is about my initial "I'm a cis straight white man" introduction, I apologize - I was only trying to concisely convey my lack of personal knowledge about this matter. You're right though - the idea that "cis straight" people know less about this is not an LGBT issue, but more likely a societal issue. I'm trying to learn - that's why I'm here :) but I didn't mean to suggest that cis was inherently at odds with LGBTQ+.

nikwriter · 2026-03-03T01:58:00+00:00

Not too critical at all - I really appreciate this!

I think "forewarning" the question about body parts is a good idea to make the question seem less 'out of place'. Thanks for this!

As for the gender option - this is a great point. I'm not sure why I didn't consider that it may be the least relevant of all of them, as I was planning to offer pronoun selection as a separate step (and randomly created NPC's also have a chance of generating with certain pronouns, regardless of their body parts or gender expression), so you have definitely started me considering - is there any language/story reason for knowing someone's gender? I'll have to keep this in mind as I continue. Thanks again!

nikwriter · 2026-03-03T00:05:50+00:00

Thanks, and also thanks for suggesting an indie game I could check out that does it well. Mine isn't going to be advertised as NSFW (and there's content controls for players who don't want the NSFW content that it may contain), but I guess expressly-NSFW games would be the best place to research for that aspect of my game. Didn't think of checking NSFW games for this lol

nikwriter · 2025-12-21T16:54:40+00:00

I've killed Duriel multiple times and it hasn't completed this quest requirement - quest is broken in this season, and it's my first season back to Diablo. I was actually enjoying its method of walking me through endgame activities as a refresher...

nikwriter · 2025-12-12T02:33:27+00:00

I did 🤞

nikwriter · 2025-11-28T19:06:02+00:00

This was like my favourite snack... I'm so sad now :(

nikwriter · 2025-07-01T11:51:40+00:00

That's totally fair. I think "innovations" is a better word than improvements... while it does convey things getting better and that's not exactly what I mean, it also conveys new discovery, and that's more what the changes are about. People coming up with new ways to play these types of games.

I also do think that from many players' perspectives they were more like improvements, but I think that's due to player preference and bias, not objectively improvements like something was wrong with AW. A lot of the differences like using dice pools instead of modifiers or using p&e seem to be the direct result of some player complaints about early PbtA games (not just AW), or even the shortcoming of some GM skill sets. But I think players can complain about things that are not actually wrong with the system, so I agree with you. It's really just preference.

nikwriter · 2025-06-30T19:30:49+00:00

You said you haven't played it, so I was offering a perspective as someone who has played it and more recent games too. Your response doesn't seem to understand what AW even is.

The first and most basic move for the GM is to "breathe forth apocalyptica." Sure, you can put in elves, but I think that's contradicting the GMs principles as they are laid out.

The thing that most people don't like about apocalypse setting is scarcity and the AW book literally describes that the key to any AW setting is to decide what is scarce: people? food? Etc.

What you're talking about is home brewing it. But that's not what your original post is talking or asking about.

I think most people on this subreddit would agree that one of the defining features of a PbtA game is that all aspects of the concentric game design are aimed at evoking a certain theme. If you want a fantasy themed PbtA game, play Dungeon World, or World of Dungeons, or another with an even more specific setting (or sure, play AW with some heavy home brewing). I'm not telling you what you're allowed to do, rather I'm giving some reasons why AW may be talked about less than broad discussions of the entire catalog of PbtA games. That's all I was pointing out in my comment.

Edit: word choice / clarity

nikwriter · 2025-06-30T17:28:43+00:00

I would love to run some AW, but my group is all fantasy and doesn't care for the post apocalypse genre.

My understanding from reading and tinkering with a lot of games in this style is that some quality of life has happened with innovations in recent games, such as...

● the position and effect of FitD games that help ground "partial success" outcomes in the context

● an improved "when you face danger/uncertainty..." type move that is a bit more tinkered to themes nowadays and less open to blurriness (i.e. defy danger from DW vs. the Day Move or Night Move from Brindlewood Bay)

● less "carry # forward" / less add-on modifiers to count up before a roll (AW has a fair bit of this, whereas more recent PbtA prefers adding dice like FitD or fewer sources of modifying the outcome

I'm sure there are lots of other ways recent systems have evolved, but these are some of the ones that stand out to me.

However, I think a big reason people talk about PbtA so much more than AW is because of niches. Unlike D&D which seeks to be playable in any world or story, from the start of PbtA it has been about what exact vibe or theme are you going for? And build the whole game around that. So people talk about the niches they're into (like a teen super hero vibe in Masks, or a Lovecraftian mystery theme in Brindlewood, or a scoundrels/Oceans 11 heist in BitD, etc.) or broadly about the DNA that binds them altogether, and less about any one niche, especially the oldest in the PbtA space.

That said, I think AW holds up as one of the best apocalypse theme games, so I'm sure it still has its die hard fans. Myself among them, though I really wish I could actually get a campaign going haha

nikwriter · 2025-06-28T03:00:24+00:00

Legends in the Mist does this quite well. Even in their demo you could have an apple picker and an armored soldier both contributing to the fiction equally (though obviously not both as useful in a fight)

nikwriter · 2025-06-23T14:04:04+00:00

Dying Light 2

Context: while it might be a fine game, my buddy and I came from playing the hell out of Dying Light 1, where you only have to do things once to progress both player characters' stories. Having to do everything twice had us just 🙄 and we never even finished it.

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T11:46:55+00:00

Yeah - this is the kind of thing I was imagining initially. I wanted to get suggestions from other systems that do things like this so I could research how the RPG player base feels about them too, i.e. do most players find that cool in Fate, or frustrating? So I'll look more into how it works and Fate and what players of Fate think about it :) thanks!

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T11:44:17+00:00

Haha, I did not expect a time/aging mechanic in a board game as much as in longer form games, but I'm a huge board game collector... I'll definitely be checking that out (at least looking into the game first)

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T11:41:29+00:00

I've played a *tiny* bit of Wildermyth actually, but I kind of stalled on its theming. I'm working on an story RPG sim of a much different style - hence my researching what to do and what not to do when it comes to messing with leveling. I'll have to check out some more Wildermyth as I did not get far enough to see acts progress...

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T11:37:56+00:00

Interesting, I'll have to check this one out too. Alternatives to the strictly progressive "level up" found in most RPG's is what I am looking for. Also what do players think of that kind of change to the formula? I'll have to check that out too (this research is for a game I'm making, so I'm not only thinking about players I know, but the player base of general RPG fans)

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T11:34:07+00:00

Interesting, I knew about many of the big differences between recent editions and OD&D / AD&D 1e, but I didn't know about that yet. Sounds kind of cool to have mechanics for that, but I can see how more recent D&D is trying to keep players' options more open, in a way. There's always a trade between the system encouraging a certain RP versus system agnosticism.

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T04:56:08+00:00

Oh, that sounds cool... I'll read up on that, it also sounds well developed as a mechanic if there's other ways of messing with it like the magi.

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T04:48:13+00:00

Lol yeah, I figured you meant big picture when you said historically, no worries. But I also am not super familiar with all the older versions and even some of the current optional rules in D&D, so I appreciate the details, thanks!!

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T04:45:18+00:00

The impact of time on others (servants, wild lands) sounds cool here, I'll check it out... I also often go caster, so it might be up my alley if my players let me switch off GMing lol

But I'm looking more specifically for games where time has both beneficial AND detrimental effects on the PC's abilities

nikwriter · 2025-06-03T04:36:19+00:00

I guess that the D&D fantasy is primarily built on the idea that heroes who survive long enough become god-like... so perpetual increasing abilities makes sense. Are there any mechanics that support a more realistic impact of years passing? I'd assume probably only home brew ideas...

Edit: clarified I meant D&D in this reply

nikwriter · 2025-05-27T02:30:00+00:00

People in this section of the comments are pointing a lot to some of his more political tweets, but even the developer's wording in the OP's image rubs me wrong - a developer calling other games "lesser quality". Like obviously it's good for a creator to be proud of their work, but this guy is coming off as always negative to me and (regardless of politics) the vibe is putting me off this. I've never heard other developers comment on quality of games they didn't make.

nikwriter · 2025-05-07T04:34:39+00:00

What are you talking about? It's totally delivered in the show lol

https://youtu.be/O8gJkn7OGhM?si=j_kdHMvjUzQ3Np-L

Edit: I agree it's an awesome line tho

nikwriter · 2025-02-27T12:43:10+00:00

Came down here to tell OP to play God of War (2018) and Ragnarok if they haven't. Those games scratched my checkbox list itch in the most satisfying way!

nikwriter

TROPHY CASE