*extremely that kid voice* uh huh huh huh im so high guys, yeahhhhhhh
I have a strong dislike of Grand Theft Auto 5, the kind of dislike that once led to me tearing into someone I respect in a conversation about it, just because my roll was that in need of slowing. I was wrong and a dick in that situation, but I also...
2018-02-21 02:12:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Insanity might not be every hack’s favorite nail to pound, but they keep it near to their hammer.
To say the face of mental illness as portrayed in videogames is inaccurate is the sort of thing that provokes a wretch. For a lot of reasons, like the fact that ‘inaccurate’ in this case is one of those pocket hand...
2018-02-13 21:08:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The Bakers were a threat in a game. They were also a mirror to reality.
Forgive me for having mental illness on the brain. When you’re on an Island, a thing you find yourself thinking about a lot is the conditions on other people’s Islands, ones that you’ve been adjacent to through others in your life. Addictio...
2018-02-11 01:03:05 +0000 UTC View PostIf there's anything that hacky videogames have tried to convince us of, it's that mental illness makes you a dangerous, possibly superhuman villain. Not at all like the reality of the thing, where it's an annoyance of frustrating self-paradoxes. Where you can be sidelined from being creative and doing things you like because your mind has decided t...
2018-02-09 21:08:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name (as well as the WEAKNESSES of your SECRET MARTIAL ARTS TECHNIQUES.)
Dragon Ball FighterZ came out this past Friday, which has led a lot of folks to once again hang out with an old friend from their childhood. Particularly, the one friend that yelled a lot and exp...
2018-01-31 00:17:33 +0000 UTC View Post
The sun hung low, a pale green hue. It really wasn’t hot in any appreciable way, not nearly the sort of heat emitted by an entity that should go around identifying itself as a member of solar royalty. Maybe it wasn’t a sun, and she was just assuming that. Maybe it was her mistake, to see a round ball of light in the sky above her and j...
2018-01-24 01:49:48 +0000 UTC View Post
My afternoon was spent between honing my aim with the javelin and descent into teenage existential dread. My aim was terrible; my dreading was superb. I was well aware of my faults as both a young man and wolf in recent months and years, and now I had also been exposed as just as much a magician. As though some cosmic joke, the folds of the fabric ...
2018-01-17 22:48:31 +0000 UTC View Post
People who seek a spotlight should be wary of how bright they are.
David Cage is the biggest charlatan in the games industry. I have said it before and I just said it again. This was my view as the outsider, an individual looking in to the man, his games and his company, judging him by his works. Just as the man himsel...
2018-01-15 20:48:50 +0000 UTC View Post
It's the new year, and that means it's time to get back into the swing of things. I took time to put my head down and do some big work on Otherlore over the holidays that you'll be seeing in this spot soon enough. Thank you all again for your continuing support. 2018 is going to be a good year for BASIC and Otherlore!
...
2018-01-11 01:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThere exist places safe from both the dangers of empires and monsters in the Known World of Otherlore. Today, we'll look at two.
A city state on the northwestern coast of the Continent, protected by high walls, natural cliffs and an impressive harbour chain gate known as the Hullcra...
2018-01-06 03:03:39 +0000 UTC View PostI hope you're all having a good time. I've got my head down officially, working on getting Otherlore in a state that I can have to you by January. So if updates seem sparse, I swear, it's not because I'm not working.
It's because I've got the SAD, and winter is a hard time for me.
Well, no, not just because of that, also because I'm doing m...
2017-12-28 03:43:56 +0000 UTC View Post
In today's Otherlore update, we'll take a break from breaking down the mechanics of play in order to get back into a bit of the flavor of the setting- good to mix things up every now and again to keep your brain moving. Here, we're getting in to some of the stuff beyond leather, wood, linen and iron that exist in its Known World. Enjoy!
It Takes a Lot to Be a Loser with All Your Might
If you know me, you know one of my big things is that violence has a tone. The short version of this is that there’s more separating the violence of Tom and Jerry cartoons from than that of Eastern Promises than the amount of blood hitting the walls. While that itsel...
2017-12-03 04:33:55 +0000 UTC View Post
The old man died rambling about eyes in the dark. Tormented to the end, a death of gnawing fear that pursued him even in his sleep and stopped a heart that had seen too many winters to bear the strain. The last kindness of the local folk was to give him a warm bed to die in and someone there to hold his hand when he went. “Eyes in the dark,” he...
2017-11-14 21:28:10 +0000 UTC View PostA deadly stranger on a late road, a bedazzled fool's conception of a lion, militia fighters made fierce and proud in death, and the striding eyes of an eternal Nightmare.
“Don’t mind the footsteps, mind that the torch stays lit.”
The dead must have cause to rest, or else they must ...
2017-11-09 21:40:04 +0000 UTC View Post
"The shape manifest of every mistaken movement spotted beyond the lantern’s light, of every fang-curved glint of moonlight, of every strange scratching heard at the window in the small hours.”
We tell our children that we come home when the sun comes down, because in the woods and mountains lurk things of tooth and claw ...
2017-11-09 21:36:42 +0000 UTC View Post
“You made an example. It came to show gratitude.”
People take for granted the blurred line between life and death in the Known World. Most folk, being decent, have proper words to say, rites to perform and methods of disposal that sends all parts of the dead on to their Next Life. Most folk, being decent, could find a bo...
2017-11-09 21:35:37 +0000 UTC View Post
The devil in the detail of intentionally bad weapon design.
Ahoy Spoilers: Don't read this if you haven't played Wolfenstein 2 and you're the sort that cares about going into matters blind.
Wolfenstein 2 came out. It’s a great game and an utterly amazing storytelling experience...
2017-11-07 03:18:49 +0000 UTC View PostThe Known World is a strange place, one that has ways of echoing both the conscious and subconscious of the mortals that populate it. Beyond the Primal forces harnessed in acts of magic through sheer understanding and willpower, and the fuel for the extraordinary that is tangible Faith, the power of hope and trust shared willingly, there are other,...
2017-10-27 02:30:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Choke on your koopy sandwich you miserable bastard.
David Cage is the biggest charlatan in the games industry. His continued persistence and existence in this field is the most baffling mystery to date, and perhaps the biggest example of executives being wowed by flash over substance. He is a man with an idea of what...
2017-10-19 02:08:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Know what’s scary? That fraction of a fraction of a second between your trigger breaking and the rifle firing when you realize you don’t have your earplugs in.
Cry of Fear is one hell of a portfolio piece for its developers, Team Psykskallar. With only three core members and several other contributors, they put t...
2017-10-05 22:44:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes I wonder if I overthink things, and that I’m letting things grow out of scope. I’m prone to streamlining processes over doing things as any sort of high-fidelity simulation, because I prefer things that flow and play things fast and loose over things that revel in fine details. So when I find myself building systems that go d...
2017-10-04 22:07:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Which Ironically Contains a Lot of Slam Masters
Part One of a series I’ll be crossposting between The Greatest Podcast in the History of Our Sport.
To say that wrestling games are an enthusiast genre is putting it mildly. The reason for this is simple- since almost its inception, it’s been one domi...
2017-09-26 00:06:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Because Red Mist is Better Than Self Doubt
The biggest load of horseshit fed to the parents of people of my generation was that violent videogames were creating a generation of crazed killers. Aside from being the same old trash about jazz, weed, rock and roll and hip hop once again spun into a new way to stoke suburban fears of ...
2017-09-18 02:32:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Better get used to me making these puns, there’s more on the way.
Never get the idea that I’m not the kind of person that self-edits. I know things kinda go to the contrary from what you all have been seeing out of me thusfar, but you should trust me, I do. One of the biggest recurring questions I ask myself with...
2017-09-10 00:14:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Your murderclown shtick is old. No, shut it, it is. Put these cowboy boots on, we’re going to be Anton Chigurh now.
We understand that fear stems from distrust in what is unknown. People like to mock others over their fear of the dark, which is not only cruel, but also kinda dumb. After all, what is more unkn...
2017-08-30 23:47:55 +0000 UTC View Post
The Only Thing That Stops a Bad Guy with a Gun is an Asshole With a Phone, Several Guns
I’ve felt scorched by games in my life, things I’ve tried to rationalize as being Actually Good, Really. You know how much I paid for Dead to Rights? $82. You know long I persisted in the belief it was “pretty okay, yo...
2017-08-23 02:03:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Because “Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies” Should Be Your Exit Strategy to a Bad Game, and Not a Regular Event.
My view of table RPGs is that they’re an event where a group of people get together to entertain themselves, some playing the role of specific characters within a world, and one playing the entire rest of th...
2017-08-14 23:38:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Because Life is Complicated in Every Conceivable Way, Why Wouldn’t Rifles Be Too?
Last week, I laid out the groundwork for better understanding the human race’s main infantry weapon, the rifle. Now, I’m going to outline all the way that groundwork “isn’t always,” because even without actually building and...
2017-08-12 17:09:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Dang, that's basic.
I'm an English major. This means many things about me, one of which is that numbers terrify and confuse me. Another is that I'm prone to verbosity if left unchecked. BASIC is a roleplaying game system that is my current focus as a developer. I am nothing if not unchecked.
The Intent 2017-08-08 03:14:07 +0000 UTC View Post