u/Rocamora_27

I love Dungeons of Drakkenheim so much and I can see so much potential for a CRPG game like Pathfinder Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous.

It would be so cool, with all the awesome lore, faction conflict and creatures from MoD.

One can dream.

I played the demo today and fell in love with this game! Any news for the release date of early access?

Last night, I finished the first part (Pale) of Gardens of the Moon.

I hesitated a bit getting into Malazan because of all the fame it has of being a very hard fantasy series to read. It doesn't help that I have to read it in english, which is not my first language. I decided to give it a go recently.

I mean, sure, we are thrown into a word with an existing conflict and a bunch of names we have little context on. This means we need some patience to uncover the plot threads bit by bit, but I just assume this is not that uncommon with complex fantasy worlds in general, in different media, most of them have a learning curve. There is of course a lot of shady Tiste Andii and god stuff in the background for sure, but I think that's great. Builds a sense of mistery which fantasy should aim for. And there sure is a lot to keep track of, but I feel like the author does a good job reminding you of things that are important with nods and several references that makes it fine to build connections and keep your focus were it should be.

I have to say I come from a soulslike gaming background, so the type of storytelling that asks the reader to connect dots and uncover the plot slowly is something that appeal to me.

I also really like how each chapter almost feels like a short story on it's own, althought they build into the larger plot as a whole. Reminds me of the first Witcher books, which were more episodic.

I'm loving the book! I have seen comments on how GoTM is the worst book in the series, but I'm yet to see the boring parts. I think the author takes his time, for sure, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I have never felt a chapter did not matter to the story I'm reading, which I think would be the real issue. I'm eaguer to see what happens next. Maybe I'm just a patient reader.

Anyway, why do you think the books has this looming reputation of being hard to chew on?

EDIT: well, somehow people got offended by my post, which is kinda crazy, but this is the internet after all. Some people read my post as "wow, Malazan is a breeze, so freaking easy, I'm very smart and everyone else is dumb!". I never said Malazan is an easy read, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Actually, I described severel things I thought could make it complicated for people. What I was actually trying to say, is that, the way people talk about it online, I had the impression this was the kind of book that tackling it would be like facing a PhD course, a lot of people saying it's a work of philosophy and anthropology... As a PhD student in social sciences field, let me break it to you: it's not. That doesn't mean there isn't references to those fields, but so far, halfway throught GoTM, I'm still to find a concept in the book that is hard to grasp if you have a fantasy background. Most of stuff feels very D&D fantasy with a twist. It's very fun and I'm thrilled by it, don't get me wrong. And this could get denser as the story progresses for sure.

My mention of soulslike was because the storytelling of the genre asks the player to be ok with not understanding what is going on, having information and contex withheld from them on purpose and trust that it will be unveiled in the future. I'm not saying I'm smarter or can understand what is going better than most people because of this background. I'm just saying I might be more ok with feeling confused because of the kind of stuff that appeal to me.

I get that there is severel PoV characters throught the series and the scope sounds pretty awesome. But this is more of an excess of information to keep track of thing (and that sure is a challenge, I can already see that in book 1, the guide at the beggining is very helpful) than actually having concepts that are hard to get your head around to actually understand the book. Those are different things. There are several books in literature that are not long and have very few characters, but the chances of you understanding it without a teacher explaining it to you are low. I don't think that's the case with Malazan, at least from what I have seen so far. Well, I could be wrong and the book might turn to that sort of work as the series progresses. But I think this overblown reputation of "you need to have MEGABRAIN to get this" is very bad, because it keeps people like myself from starting the series out of fear.

I have never seen it in play, but just by reading it, the lvl 3 Valor Domain card Critical Inspiration feels very, very lackluster.

I just don't understand why this card has so many restrictions. First, it triggers only on a critical hit, which has like less than 10% of a chance to occur, so it MIGHT happen once per session. I think I have never seen a player crit more often than this, and they not always are attacks, and this ability only applies to attacks. And sometimes a player won't crit at all during an entire session.

That on it's own is already pretty limiting. But there is more: it's an once per rest feature. Not the worst thing, but considering it's a RNG dependent ability with less than a 1/10 chance of triggering... Well... Maybe let the player enjoy the feeling of benefiting from this ability more if they are lucky enough to score multiple critcal hits in a session?

But wait. There is even MORE restrictions: it only affects creatures that are VERY CLOSE to you.

Now, that's just unbelievable to me. You not only need to rely on the once per rest odd stacked against you RNG to succed, but you need to be on the perfect position for this to have any effect? It's so freaking niche. I don't understand why the designers didn't make it a Close or even Far range ability.

I don't feel like taking this card ever as a player.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone had a different experience with this at play?

Desde que tirei meu título de eleitor em 2016, sou convocado para trabalhar como mesário em todas as eleições. Já fazem 10 anos e nunca faltei em nenhum ocasião, exceto no primeiro turno de 2020 em que eu estava com suspeita de Covid e justifiquei ausência. Ainda assim, trabalhei no segundo turno.

Acabei de ser convocado para a próxima eleição, mas quero pedir dispensa. Eu nunca gostei do trabalho - ainda que considere um serviço que todo brasileiro deveria cumprir ao menos uma vez para entender o processo -, mas não me importava de participar. É chato, mas não o fim do mundo.

Porém, esse ano, eu estou na reta final do meu doutorado, que preciso terminar em dezembro. Bem ou mal, são alguns dias de trabalho que a gente perde e que não terão nenhum impacto no meu prazo de defesa, fora a minha exaustão do trabalho de pesquisa. Pensar "você ganha um dia de folga trabalhando no domingo" é uma lógica que não se aplica a mim.

Enfim, sei que preciso enviar uma solicitação ao juiz em até 5 dias, mas a minha dúvida é se no meu caso há motivo para a dispensa. Já ouvi falar que após a terceira eleição trabalhando, dá para pedir. Bem, essa já seria a minha sexta. Além disso, já servi à Justiça como jurado em 2023. São 10 anos nesse serviço público que, considerando minha vida profissional, só me atrapalha.

Daedream might be one of my favourite pals, but I just can't stand having it in my party. The fact they stay by your side and do damage is awesome, but Daedream keeps getting in front of me all the goddamn time and it blocks my vision of everything else. I just never use it because of that, which is a big shame.

They need to fix this. It's very, very unfunctional right now, to the point having Daedream in your party and not having it out all the time is detrimental.

https://preview.redd.it/nn56k8yl999h1.png?width=1140&format=png&auto=webp&s=3fa2f4e35c2c9495cc3547d2b4278745c9419388

I'm making my way throught the Cosmere and decided to do a partial tier list. This ranking is relative, since I assigned the tiers by comparing the books to each other. It's not an absolute ranking, and I want to make clear that I enjoyed them all.

Also, it's all subjective, of course!

Here is how I ranked them:

S - God Tier. Absolutely incredible. I might have a couple of issues with them, but the awesome things easily compensate and made them an incredible experience.

A - Exceptional books, but with some more glaring problems to me that keeps them from getting to the top tier.

B - Great books with highs that are very high, but with some lows that are hard to ignore.

C - Goods books with some great moments, but that were not that impactful to me or had things I really struggled with.

D - Ok books. Enjoyable, but nothing to write home about.

Here are short comments on why I ranked them that way:

S Tier:

Way of Kings - My intro into the Cosmere. It was an exceptional journey and has probably my favourite Sanderlanche so far.

Words of Radiance - Probably my favourite Cosmere book. It just has so many epic moments. "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do".

Oathbringer - This one has a couple of things I struggled with. I felt the Kholinar arc dragged a bit. But at the end of the day, the epic stuff in it is so incredible that it asbolutely deserves S.

Well of Ascension - My favourite Mistborn Era 1 book. It solves most of the issues I had with the first book, while also introducing my favourite Cosmere duo ever (Vin and TenSoon). The plot twist at the ending is insane.

A Tier:

Rhythm of War - I adore Stormlight Archive and with this one, it wasn't different. That said, when you compare it to the first three books, it's not quite there. The flashback chapters, althought enjoyable, were not as good. The Sanderlanche, althought very emotional (I cried twice while reading it), is also my least favourite of the Stormlight books so far. So it falls into A, even tho I could be persuaded to put it into S.

Hero of Ages - The reason why this book don't get S tier is because the first half of the siege of Fadrex plot was very, very dull to me. I just didn't like Yomen as an antagonist (he is more of an obstacle, really) and I just couldn't care about him at all. Such a downgrade from Straff Venture and Cett. Things got a lot better after Vin was captured tho. That said, the awesome things in it are very, very incredible. The way it ties the whole trilogy is amazing and the ending is very emotional and epic.

Warbreaker - I loved this book and it has some of my favourite Cosmere characters. The Denth plot twist was out of this world. That said, I didn't enjoy the Phan Kal plot twist at the ending. It was not bad and it made sense, but it was just... eh, ok. And for such a big plot point, that's why this didn't get S.

B Tier:

Final Empire: I know this book was written very early in Sanderson's publishing career and comparing it to his latter books, it really shows. FE is a great story, with some great characters and very good plot twists. But some things are very hard to ignore. The whole politics of the realm is almost non existant, althought the book keeps telling you it's important. Kelsier's master plan was interesting, but the execution for the most part was just... ok to read. Most of the side characters that don't get a POV (except Sazed and maybe Marsh) are very bland (this was greatly improved in WoA). And last, I just couldn't buy Elend becoming king by the end of the book. This was a very cheap move by Brandon. He needed him to become king for the latter books, but the way he did it felt extremely forced to me. The offscreen super life changing speech? Really? It also don't help that I didn't like Elend as a character in book 1 (he did become one of my favourites in book 2). It still has some very awesome things and the plot has it's own charm. There is a reason why this is a fan favourite for sure.

C Tier:

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: I really enjoyed the setting, the beggining and the ending of this book. But the big middle part was thought. I was not into the manga/anime flavour Brandon went for charactarization in this one and it hurt my enjoyment of a great chunk of the book. It was still very satisfying to finish. But the destination was better then the journey, for sure. Still an awesome book overall, but compared to other Cosmere reads, it falls into C to me.

Edgedancer: I really enjoyed the ending in this one and it shines some good light into Lift's character, but the rest of the book was ok. It's a cool novella to complement your main Stormlight reads, but definitly not a standout.

Secret History: This book is great for some Cosmere lore geeking, but as a story on itself is just fine. The thing that keeps it from getting into D tier to me is the way it intertwines with Hero of Ages, which was pretty awesome. Also feels like a complement rather than a solid read on itself.

D Tier:

Dawnshard: Now, I would like to remind you that this ranking is relative. I still enjoyed this book and it has great moments. That said, when I compare it to other Cosmere reads, the story did not impact me like everything else in here. I know this is supposed to be a very important book for the Cosmere as whole, but I'm not sure I understand what a Dawnshard actually is at all, which is a problem I think.

Anyway, that was fun to do. Will update it when I progress further into the Cosmere!

So, some weeks ago I posted about how I thought Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was my first Cosmere read that I found was not my cup of tea. It took me like 3 months to finish it, which was quite a while compared to the other Cosmere books I've read so far (for comparison, I've read Rhythm of War in like 3 weeks). However, I pushed throught because a lot of people commented that the ending was worth it.

Boy, how wrong I was.

Just finished the book and I adored it. Shed a tear, of course. When Yumi and Painter were running from the scholars on the flying tree, that's when I felt things were picking up again. By the point Nikaro's lie got revealed, I was 100% invested. Such an awesome plot twist about Torio's people and the machine, such a great Sanderlanche, such a beautiful ending. It is absolutely my cup of tea.

That said, I keep most of my criticisms. The main plot stays stagnated for too long, which I think really hurts the middle part of the book. And that part has too much cringe, which makes it even worse. It's when the story dropped all that and actually got back to developing what was set up in the beggining that I felt my investment coming back to the book.

A lot of Cosmere lore questions from that one, as well! I mean, I knew Invested objects were insanely dangerous from reading Warbreaker, but man... The Invested machine was something else. Gave me a lot of The Matrix vibes.

Anyway, on my way to the Sunlit Man now.

EDIT: oh, forgot to mention. Not sure if it was Brandon's intent (no pun intended) exactly, but nowadays this book felt like huge anti-AI propaganda, which is a huge pro to me.

I've been loving to play all species, even Kerapin, which I think has it's issues. But I'm really struggling to use Anami effectively.

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My main issue is how awkward the secondary skill is to use. It seems to want you to thow it out and then reposition yourself to hit more enemies in order to get the most out of it, which is reinforced by Anami's high mobility. But I'm having a hard time pulling this off consistently. It seems a lot of stuff has to align for this stategy to work and most of the time you would do better by just spamming the primary skill.

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I don't think Anami is a bad species, but it is kind of awkward I think. I have a huge grudge with Kerapin (even thought in visual design it's one of my favourites) because how long the bombs take to explode, but I'm still finding it more consistent than Anami.

I'm having a blast with the game and I'm pretty addicted at the moment.

However, I agree with some of the more common general complaints (game needs more level variety, coop and QOL features).

That said, I will point out that something that was a bit of a let down for me was the lack of interactions between our character and the Voidlings. I mean, they are a bunch of cute and fun alien pets. I was craving for more "caring and nurturing" gampelay with them. We can basically pet and rename them, but that's all. I know that's not the focus of the game, but considering it is a monster collector and we literally bond with them, it would be nice to have some charming side features.

I'm thinking basic stuff such as customizing their room (it's crazy we can't do that, actually), having some unique interactions with different species, maybe some emotes, an affinity system, stuff you can feed them to increase their affinity and unlock some extra perks. Right now, they feel like tools more than pets and creatures you can grow attached to.

I picked this game up today, played for 4 hours. So far, I'm really ejoying it!

However, a lot of Steam reviews says the game's "campaign" is pretty short and from what I understand, there is an endgame to keep us engaged. Is the endgame good?

I'm absolutely thrilled by the game's concept of evolving your voidling, but I also felt that only 9 spiecies is not much for a monster capture game. I know the focus is how diverse their mutations can be, but still.

What are your experiences so far?

Tô pensando há algum tempo em começar a narrar de forma paga. São duas coisas que me levaram a pensar nessa possibilidade:

1. Jogo e mestro RPG há mais de 6 anos, mas vida adulta é foda e mestrar dá trabalho. Antigamente, eu mantinha mesas semanais. Atualmente, só consigo narrar para um grupo de amigos uma vez por mês. Conseguir agenda com mais frequência que isso é impossível. Fazer isso de forma remunerada ao menos me possibilita reservar tempo que eu dedicaria ao meu trabalho para poder preparar sessões e mestrar, no estilo de um bico. Fora isso, simplesmente não parece que vale a pena, infelizmente. O negócio é que eu sinto vontade de mestrar com mais frequência, gosto muito, mas é uma atividade que não cabe mais na agenda semanal como simples hobby.

2. Gosto muito de mestrar para os meus amigos, mas são aquele grupo que tá ali mais pela diversão e piadas. O que é massa, mas eu gostaria muito de ter uma mesa com um RP mais focado, em que os jogadores realmente entrassem na história e no desenvolvimento do seu personagem. Não sou contra piadas, acho que elas melhoram a mesa, mas acho que por ser uma mesa mais "atividade entre amigos no final de semana", a galera não leva tão a sério. Dizem que em mesas pagas esse comprometimento com a história costuma ser maior.

O que vocês acham sobre o tema? É difícil conseguir fechar uma mesa nesse esquema? Eu não gostaria de exatamente me profissionalizar no sentido disso eventualmente se tornar minha renda principal, mas manter uma mesa comissionada para conseguir jogar uma campanha maneira, com desenvolvimento narrativo e início, meio e fim. Alguém com experiência nisso?

Hello, everyone! I'm a Daggerheart GM, and I've been checking out the Elemental Origin Sorcerer. This feels like a flavorful subclass, but one that is very relient on GM discression.

It's Foundation feature is: you can shape your element into harmless effects. Aditionaly, you can describe how your element helps you out, use a Hope and gain +2 in an action roll or +3 in a damage roll.

The thing is, since this is so relient on the circumstances (except for maybe Earth and Air), I wonder if fellow GMs would allow the reflavor of spells and weapon attacks to impact it. I'm talking things like the Lightning Sorcerer describing their magic damage blasts as Lightning based attacks, such as Unleash Chaos being described as Unleash Lightning, or Cinder Grasp being described as a Shocking Grasp, and if this would allow them to apply the Foundation feature.

I'm willing to say absolutely yes. It makes perfect sense that an Elemental Origin Sorcerer would focus magic on their core element. And honestly, considering you need to spend a Hope, I think it's fine.

If you don't allow this to happen, I feel like this subclass gets really tuned down. The same goes with Beastwarden Ranger. It needs the GM to allow the fiction of having an animal around doing animal things to move it's gameplay and create new possibilities, otherwise it does not sound very good.

What is your opinion? Have you played or GM'd for an Elemental Origin Sorcerer?