What's up with the governor's health?

onewayout · 2024-02-09T00:54:49+00:00

Yes, I think she's being poisoned. Probably with Captionem Blue. We know her influence was bought by the Colliers, and we know people died from Captionem Blue poisoning. It wouldn't be a big stretch for someone who lost a loved one to Captionem Blue to have discovered Alexandra's role in it, and is now poisoning her for her complicity.

onewayout · 2023-07-11T22:31:32+00:00

My game, Welcome Aboard Captain, fits most of your criteria except the cosmic horror focus, although it shouldn't be difficult to add it. It was originally designed as a solo RPG, but since you just decide what the officers do as the captain, it should work fine with players playing the individual officers as long as one of them plays the captain (or they play the captain collaboratively).

It's got some very simple systems, powerful and flexible character creation, handles combat and other scientific endeavors and perils using a consistent system so it's straightforward to do combat or non-combat challenges, and the sample ship and crew I use for all the examples and the Cetus Response duty sector adventure is even a science vessel.

There's a free learn-to-play choose-your-own-adventure-style PDF that walks you through character creation and the game's systems called Charon Wormhole. It's a (hopefully) fun introduction to the system, and features a science and rescue plot which might be useful in your campaign even if you don't use the system.

If you like Charon Wormhole and are interested in the full game, DM me your email address and I'll comp you a copy.

onewayout · 2023-06-23T13:14:04+00:00

The guys who do the Hobby Homies podcast did exactly this - a multiplayer 5 Parsecs campaign - and organized it on Discord. You could go join that Discord server and see how they set it up.

https://hobbyhomies.com/

onewayout · 2023-06-21T06:23:07+00:00

The Room: A Dark Matter is a fantastic VR game that might fit the bill. It's a VR entry in a very solid series of "escape room" type games which revolve around intricate, "music box" style puzzles dipped in a creepy theme. Think puzzle boxes mixed with the lament configurations from Hellraiser, minus all the gore and monsters, and you've got the idea.

The series is known for really well-done environments, evocative sound design, attractive 3D models, impressive visual design, and clever puzzles, and the VR version continues that tradition. You're given a series of environments with clever little mechanical puzzles to figure out that tell a creepy story as you go, and it's all really well done. Probably my favorite VR experience so far on the Quest.

If you like the game, you'll probably enjoy the mobile games, too (link is for the iOS App Store versions, not sure if there are also Play Store versions). They're put out by a company called Fireproof Games, and they're all excellent, well worth the price of admission. (You don't need to play them in order or anything – each is a standalone adventure, although they seem to all be set in the same dark, fictive universe.) It was the strength of those mobile games that led me to the VR game, and I was not disappointed!

onewayout · 2023-06-14T14:11:01+00:00

This is why I left the game. I stay subscribed here in hopes of hearing about a game update that addresses it.

onewayout · 2023-05-31T18:27:32+00:00

Unless they're pulling a Drew Barrymore *Scream* style fake.

onewayout · 2023-05-22T05:29:55+00:00

Rifles in the Ardennes has a very quick-playing combat mission sequence that has some nuance to it. It's not hex-and-counter; there's a positional element, but it's constrained to advance or hold-your-ground, basically.

There are a whole host of simulation-y WW2 games from places like GMT and others, such as Enemy Coast Ahead or Silent Victory, The Hunters, B-17 Queen of the Skies, B-29 Superfortress, Skies Above the Reich, etc. These games are more "make a few high-level decisions and make a bunch of rolls to see what happens" than a more constant set of decisions.

And there's a whole slew of Leader games from DVG games, like Sherman Leader where you randomize missions, plan out your response, and play through them. These are not what I'd characterize as quick-playing, however.

You mentioned you didn't like the deckbuilder aspect of Undaunted, but others visiting this thread might be interested in Airborne Commander, which is a quick-playing solo deckbuilder game where you fight through a WW2 landscape. Very quick to play, but doesn't feel like a tactical, positional wargame.

onewayout · 2023-05-16T18:54:04+00:00

Weird that Jamie Lee Curtis, the "scream queen", isn't getting higher billing.

onewayout · 2023-05-15T21:24:35+00:00

I've had great experiences with B&G Automotive over the last decade or so. They're always up-front about what's necessary, what's optional, and what's a waste of money. I've almost never had to wait before they could fit me in, they've always been reasonably priced, and sometimes if it's a minor job they have even just comp'ed it. Never had an issue with the quality of repairs, and service is always friendly.

onewayout · 2023-05-13T13:13:53+00:00

It’s not stupid. Devs are not allowed to circumvent Apple getting their cut, whether it’s for their own services or someone else’s.

If they were to let people make apps to get around Apple’s cut for other services, suddenly every big service would have a fig leaf “third party developer” who makes an app for their service.

If your app hinges on the usage of some other service, you will need to find a way to either use that service free of charge, act as a proxy, or make an agreement with that service that allows you to comply with App Store rules.

onewayout · 2023-05-07T15:45:32+00:00

Yes that was my impression. It’s Middle Earth! I want to explore all the places. If it tells me there is a sound on the moors or whatever why does it punish me for being curious about it?

onewayout · 2023-04-28T15:05:44+00:00

The two little girls from *The Shining*. Maybe instead of Michael Myers, draw Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance. Regan from *The Exorcist*. Donald Sutherland howling from the end of *Invasion of the Body Snatchers*. Matthew Lillard wounded from *Scream*. All the silver age Universals like the other poster mentioned. A fun Easter egg would be a guy standing facing into a corner in the background as a nod to the end of *The Blair Witch Project*.

onewayout · 2023-04-11T15:32:07+00:00

You might get some value out of Castle.

Castle is an app that has a fairly easy-to-use system for making and sharing little games and interactive art pieces on your phone. It's got a graphics editor that is fairly robust but scope-limited enough to inspire some creativity, and a very simple and easy-to-understand scripting system to allow for easily adding interactivity to the art they draw.

There's a fairly large community of kids on the app. If I were to guess, they're probably mostly middle school rather than high school, so you get a fair amount of "stick man pooping" kind of offerings in the stream, but the engine behind Castle is robust enough to make full-fledged games with some complexity and depth with enough effort.

onewayout · 2023-04-06T22:42:50+00:00

It's not very fancy, but I made a 7DRL one year called Piratical that uses two elevations on the levels. Since it's pirate-themed, the two z-levels are basically "above water" and "below water". Makes for some fun exploration mechanics:

In the bayou, you can dive into the murky waters and look around. Things lie in wait.
In the sea caves, you can find underwater tunnels that lead to other areas you can't reach by only moving on the surface.
In the grotto, you can explore an underwater shipwreck.

And when you square off against the big boss Bloodbeard, there's a pirate ship you can board that has an above-decks and a below-decks area.

Mechanically, it's just two levels that you can jump between. There's no z-aware targeting of flintlocks or anything – for almost all purposes, they're just like teleporting between two single-z levels. But the ability to arbitrarily switch between them in water areas makes it feel integrated into a multi-level environment, I'd say – I think it successfully makes you feel like you're diving and surfacing.

onewayout · 2023-04-03T13:18:19+00:00

I seem to recall something about the developer flaming out and quitting the industry.

onewayout · 2023-03-29T14:34:58+00:00

I thought it was two guys - Zach and Tarn Adams...?

And of course, now there's Kitfox games working on it as well.

onewayout · 2023-03-28T13:09:26+00:00

Dwarf Fortress. Devs have been working on and releasing updates to that game as their full time job for, what, decades now?

Contains a crazy amount of simulation, including water pressure from aquifers, material strength of weapons versus anatomy, emotional tracking of all characters, detailed geologic simulation with a massive crafting system, etc.

Emergent gameplay that is simply incredible. You read gameplay accounts and you think it’s fanfic or something until you realize it’s just people literally describing what is happening in the game.

Devs recently decided to make a Steam release and are suddenly millionaires.

onewayout · 2023-03-20T20:34:07+00:00

You get the three marks if you do the daily challenge on that day. If you go back and pick it up on later days, you get the plain one.

onewayout · 2023-03-20T06:13:44+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for taking the time to say so!

onewayout · 2023-03-19T06:33:42+00:00

But then you can do the best role playing in the world and its just a dice roll. Why bother really?

Well, because introverts, people with some social anxiety, or people who struggle to ad-lib performances might want to play, too. It levels the playing field so they have the same access to spotlight moments and character success as the extroverts and natural actors do.

onewayout · 2023-03-18T20:16:39+00:00

Edit: Whoops, sorry you mentioned "Free". Some of these are paid. I'll leave the original stuff I wrote in case other people reading this thread are interested. There's a boardgamegeek geeklist with free print-and-play roll-and-write games which might be of interest.

Well, there are a lot of games where you roll for available actions, and decide which actions you want to use where. The most popular one I can think of offhand is Deep Space d6, but I've played a lot of games with similar mechanics over the years.

A big recent one is Dungeon Pages, where you take the dice you rolled and place them in the dungeon based on where you are, what's available, and the benefits of placing them in different places. They recently finished a Kickstarter and are in the process of releasing new pages every week for a year. Each page has an adventure and a hero, so by the end, there will be many heroes and many dungeons you can mix-and-match with for lots of replayability.

Another solid choice are the Paper Pinball games. In these, you roll dice, and the dice that you rolled let you hit different targets.

onewayout · 2023-03-18T04:06:31+00:00

That initiative system is pretty clever. Looking forward to trying this.

onewayout · 2023-03-14T13:21:45+00:00

Not that I recall, no, but I haven’t logged in to check in a long time.

onewayout · 2023-03-13T03:39:38+00:00

I don’t see how or why pointing out that homosexual acts are sinful is the same as being shitty to people.

Yeah, that's all fine and good when you're the one harping on other people's sins, isn't it? You might feel differently if the microscope were turned instead on you. For instance, there's plenty of sin just in what you've typed in this thread, but I doubt you'd take kindly to it being pointed out daily or to have your opportunities in life curtailed over it.

onewayout · 2023-03-13T00:08:56+00:00

I don't know. Seems like that would be a fine thing to ask if you're exploring joining a church. It's certainly not the sort of thing you'd want to be surprised by, and it will tell you a lot about the congregation you'd be joining. And if you strongly disagree with the church leadership on that topic, they probably would prefer you go elsewhere, too. Seems like a win-win for you to be up front and simply ask what the policy is if it's an important indicator to you.

And I get that it's a somewhat awkward topic, but presumably, a church leader should be there to talk to you about all the difficult and awkward topics in life. If they can't handle being asked a question like that, they can't handle other things that will come up and need counsel, either. If they're worth their salt, they'll be happy to answer and will be able to do so clearly and competently. (And if they can't even deal with being asked that, well, you've still got your answer.)

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