Idle Thumbs 276: Hype and Anticipation

[thenexus6]

SEAN YOU SON OF-A-BITCH

 

[Turgid]

For orbital mechanics, and featuring both actual astronomical data and procedurally generated stuff to fill in the blanks, never forget Space Engine. Totally free too. http://en.spaceengine.org/

 

Sean talked about it on the cast, episode 70. 

[Paul Smith]

Yes yes yes, to Sean DM'd D&D!

 

Idle Swords

Vanaman Dungeonman

Wizarrrds & Fighterrrs

What Is Dungeon?

Rapacious Thumbs

[SuperBiasedMan]

Idle Swords

Vanaman Dungeonman

Wizarrrds & Fighterrrs

What Is Dungeon?

Rapacious Thumbs

 

Dungeons Today

[Nappi]

Baboo's Gate.

[eot]

Here's my input, as a game developer!

 

Obviously I can't guarantee this is what happened, but it's definitely unequivocally 100% possible that the game had simulated orbital physics at one point in time, as well as stars being a physical object rather than a skybox, but they opted to take it out for whatever reason. Games change drastically throughout development, often many times, often without restarting from scratch, and often mere months, or even weeks, from launch. It's definitely not out of the question that even multiplayer existed, but they couldn't get it working right, or whatever. Everything they quote-unquote promised but didn't deliver is realistically achievable but arguably difficult, and thus could've been planned or even implemented before being cut for budget or time or desperate performance requirement reasons.

 

Disclaimer: the lack of orbital physics is, bar none, my biggest disappointment with the game. I was so fucking super stoked about that idea, just seeing other planets or moons slowly moving around relative to each other sounded so fucking cool!

You're right and I don't think someone should be crucified based on circumstantial evidence. My takeaway from all this is just that I won't trust what Murray says in the future. To be honest, I didn't trust him when he talked about multiplayer over a year ago. Who bookends every statement about the multiplayer they claim to have with the suggestion that no one will ever see it? What 15 man development team spends their time implementing multiplayer that no one will ever use? Not only is it a huge waste of resources, it seems like a QA nightmare as well.

In the end, we all have to make up our own minds and when I read the quotes in an article like this then look at when it was published I know what my takeaway is.

[Problem Machine]

Yay Seancast! Also, even if a campaign-cast is beyond what Sean wants to do, I'd love it if he at least came back and talked about the game he's running, since I'm sure a lot of really interesting discussion could come out of that.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Agreed with Problem Machine. As someone who only played DnD for the first time this year, I'd like to hear what Sean's approach to the system is.

[chummer]

The talk on how tabletops RPGs handle failure had me thinking of how good the Powered by the Apocalypse system is. Die rolls are broken down into 'strong hits' where the player gets what they want, a 'weak hit' where they get mostly what they want with strings attached, or a 'miss' where the GM 'makes a move.' What's neat is that on a 'miss' roll, it doesn't necessarily meant that you don't get what you want, but that the GM takes control of the narrative and gets to decide what's the most interesting thing to do for the story. It's a system that requires a lot of trust on both sides because there aren't a lot of granular rules (for instance there's no movement speed or initiative rolls) so it has a strong feeling of improvisation, but it's been the system I've enjoyed playing most.

[SuperBiasedMan]

The talk on how tabletops RPGs handle failure had me thinking of how good the Powered by the Apocalypse system is. Die rolls are broken down into 'strong hits' where the player gets what they want, a 'weak hit' where they get mostly what they want with strings attached, or a 'miss' where the GM 'makes a move.' What's neat is that on a 'miss' roll, it doesn't necessarily meant that you don't get what you want, but that the GM takes control of the narrative and gets to decide what's the most interesting thing to do for the story. It's a system that requires a lot of trust on both sides because there aren't a lot of granular rules (for instance there's no movement speed or initiative rolls) so it has a strong feeling of improvisation, but it's been the system I've enjoyed playing most.

 

I was introduced to it by the Friends at the Table podcast and it works really well there. Austin Walker is the GM and he knows how to take the moment and do something interesting with the moment. There's one scene where a character gets to choose from a list of options what bad thing happens to them. Austin begs them to choose "something breaks" because when the player does, Austin uses it as an opportunity to reveal a new detail about their character.

[tberton]

The talk on how tabletops RPGs handle failure had me thinking of how good the Powered by the Apocalypse system is. Die rolls are broken down into 'strong hits' where the player gets what they want, a 'weak hit' where they get mostly what they want with strings attached, or a 'miss' where the GM 'makes a move.' What's neat is that on a 'miss' roll, it doesn't necessarily meant that you don't get what you want, but that the GM takes control of the narrative and gets to decide what's the most interesting thing to do for the story. It's a system that requires a lot of trust on both sides because there aren't a lot of granular rules (for instance there's no movement speed or initiative rolls) so it has a strong feeling of improvisation, but it's been the system I've enjoyed playing most.

 

I was going to write into the podcast about exactly this.

 

Really, there's an incredibly prolific indie tabletop RPG scene (which mostly congregates on Google+, weirdly enough), which includes the Powered by the Apocalypse games along with a bunch of others. I highly recommend Sean and the other Thumbs check it out, even if it's just for a look at a different type of game design. Tabletop RPG design is fascinating in the similarities it has to video game and board game design, but also in how different it is.

[Claire Hosking]

I really empathise with that thing how John Dickerson has to write the piece to find out what he thinks about something. I had an oops moment a few years back where I pitched an editor something, and while writing the piece realised I'm an idiot and my original opinion was the wrong one. I still had to make a deadline tho, and had no idea whether I could just write a completely diff point, so there was a bit of a surprise! mid-piece argument reversal. Sorry editor Now I only pitch stuff I've mostly finished writing.

These days I just have a drive full of pieces I work on occasionally. I have a doc about violence in games I've been adding thoughts to for months now, maybe longer? And much older things that I add to whenever I play a new game that's relevant to that or read a piece etc. I should go back and finish my firewatch piece sometime.

And yeah I'm sad Chris that twitter expects you to be fully formed and can't be more forgiving for thinking out loud. It's absolutely built for decontextualising every thought.

[Problem Machine]

Yeah I was just talking to someone today about how often I'd get halfway through a piece arguing for something or other, then realize I didn't actually believe what I was arguing for and have to go back and figure out what I was actually talking about. I think creation is always a journey of self-discovery, and sometimes that can be really inconvenient.

[thornghost]

When I first started listening to Idle Thumbs (probably in mid-2014) I had a really hard time distinguishing Jake and Sean apart. I thought their voices were similar and In my head they were just "Snarky Dude #1" and "Snarky Dude #2" and I had no idea which was which. Now, though, after so long of an absence for Sean, I have no idea why that was ever a problem for me.

[D-e-f-]

Hooray Sean!

 

Regarding the brief Captain Olimar aside: Captain Olimar does not have a mustache.

But Charlie from Pikmin 3 did!

 

(which I don't think any of the Thumbs have played, sadly - which is a criminal offense btw)

 

[tberton]

I was going to write into the podcast about exactly this.

 

Really, there's an incredibly prolific indie tabletop RPG scene (which mostly congregates on Google+, weirdly enough), which includes the Powered by the Apocalypse games along with a bunch of others. I highly recommend Sean and the other Thumbs check it out, even if it's just for a look at a different type of game design. Tabletop RPG design is fascinating in the similarities it has to video game and board game design, but also in how different it is.

 

A follow-up to this: if the Thumbs were looking to add a new podcast to the network, an Actual Play RPG podcast would be fucking great.

[SuperBiasedMan]

A follow-up to this: if the Thumbs were looking to add a new podcast to the network, an Actual Play RPG podcast would be fucking great.

I am currently trying out a bunch new Roleplaying podcasts and I concur.

[Problem Machine]

When I first started listening to Idle Thumbs (probably in mid-2014) I had a really hard time distinguishing Jake and Sean apart. I thought their voices were similar and In my head they were just "Snarky Dude #1" and "Snarky Dude #2" and I had no idea which was which. Now, though, after so long of an absence for Sean, I have no idea why that was ever a problem for me.

I got Sean and Jake pretty quickly, but still have a hard time distinguishing between Nick and Steve when they're both on

[Mike Danger]

The whole indie RPG community on Google+ is something I only recently became aware of, mostly through the whole OSR (or whatever it's called) movement. I feel like a sucker for starting a D&D 5E game, because some of these indie systems sound really intriguing.

[Atlantic]

I got Sean and Jake pretty quickly, but still have a hard time distinguishing between Nick and Steve when they're both on

 

Here's a tip: Nick is the only one who doesn't say "... and I'm Nick Breckon."

[tberton]

The whole indie RPG community on Google+ is something I only recently became aware of, mostly through the whole OSR (or whatever it's called) movement. I feel like a sucker for starting a D&D 5E game, because some of these indie systems sound really intriguing.

 

No joke, if anybody on this forum wants to play a Powered by the Apocalypse game or Blades in the Dark or something, I would totally be down.

[SuperBiasedMan]

No joke, if anybody on this forum wants to play a Powered by the Apocalypse game or Blades in the Dark or something, I would totally be down.

I would also be super keen if we could figure out how to schedule it.

[juv3nal]

But Charlie from Pikmin 3 did!

 

(which I don't think any of the Thumbs have played, sadly - which is a criminal offense btw)

 

 

 (thanks thumbsdb)

[Gwardinen]

No joke, if anybody on this forum wants to play a Powered by the Apocalypse game or Blades in the Dark or something, I would totally be down.

 

 

I would also be super keen if we could figure out how to schedule it.

 

PbtA games are actually known for being very good Play by Post games on forums and the like. I am involved in one right now on Tavern Keeper. The campaign is too young and my experience of PbtA too limited for me to give a full verdict, but I'm enjoying it so far. Just another option that may work for a community spread across timezones!

[SuperBiasedMan]

Not relatedly (at least not intentionally) I did just make a post about Roleplay games (the paper kind). People could talk about running games over there.