"I think I've lived long enough to see competitive Counter-Strike as we know it, kill itself." Summary of Richard Lewis' stream (Long)
I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to. Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547 I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can. I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts. Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T
Intro
"The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
"I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
"For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
"We're spread way too thin."
"If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
Widespread match fixing
The Pandemic
"People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
"People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
"To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
"Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
"People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
"It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.
CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association
"Who does this union really fucking serve?"
RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
"and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
"We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
"They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
"I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
"Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
"Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
"That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
He also says their rankings are a joke
"Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
"Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission
"They have been put in an impossible position."
RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
"ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
"Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
"Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
"They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
"They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
Also says more coaches being banned are coming
He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
"I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
"So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
"Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
Stream Sniping
"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"
RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
"Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
"ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
"All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?
Match Fixing
"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."
RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
"Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
"Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
"I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
"Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
"There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
"It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
"It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
"I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
"That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
"All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
"I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."
North America
"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."
RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
"was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."
Talent
"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."
RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."
Valve
"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"
Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
"It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
"Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
"People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."
Closing Statements
"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."
RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
"We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
"There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
"How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
"Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
"The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
"If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
"They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
"Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
"This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
"You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
"Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
"Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
"You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
"I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
"I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
"I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."
https://twitter.com/k3soju/status/1358414142021992448?s=19 Game state of TFT The games you lose feel so frustrating because too many factors are out of your control By listing things here and offering some insight, I hope they get resolved but also, I want to emit positive energy and focus on improving and having fun on stream instead of complaining. (since I’ve already complained here)
Chosen Mechanic
Lucky Lanterns
Inflexible item holders and power of synergies
1. The fact that you can instantly find a 2 star unit with extra stats and an extra tag, it’s already impossible to balance at a competitive level but taking a look at the early game can alleviate some of the frustration. Right now, you’re guaranteed a chosen by 2-2 and guaranteed 3 Chosen’s by the end of stage 2. The problem is that a chosen gives too much direction. For example, if someone were to find one of the reroll chosens such as nasus, yasuo, fiora, nidalee etc, they could have perfect info on what units to hold and start making eco and the game essentially plays itself until 3-2 where you might have to pivot if contested or didn’t hit enough of the unit you’re trying to reroll. However, let’s assume you didn’t find a chosen until 2-1 so you pre-level for the 40% 2 star premium chosen and you don’t hit on 2-1 either so next turn you’re going to find a chosen. From this point, lets say you hit cultist elise or cultist tf. If you don’t have a cultist, chances are you shouldn’t pick this up, sac until carousel and stabilize with the 1 of the 2 remaining chosen. However, if you found cultist TF or cultist elise, you would almost instantly buy it if it were stage 1 cause you get perfect direction on what to hold and what to sell for eco. Furthermore, lets say you hit one of the reroll chosens after pre-leveling to 4, it’s so awkward to play because you’re already down 4 gold so slowrolling above 50 won’t happen until 3-2/3-3 most of the time and also you’re missing two level 4 shops. Now, lets say you hit one of the two cost chosen’s, either you hit a chosen that fits the units you gambled to hold and you’re guaranteed top 4 or you hit a chosen that’s too strong to pass up on given your items and you’re praying that the rest of your shops will accommodate the chosen you picked up or your entirety of stage 2-3 is doomed. Lets say you don’t pick up the chosen here and the next chosen you find is after carousel. Now, you’re even more limited on chosen’s because on level 5, any of the 1 cost reroll chosens are unrerollable and therefore a lot less premium and almost all of the 1 cost chosens are outscaled except for maybe Nidalee. Furthermore, say you’re playing warlord vanguard, sharpshooter opener (Garen + Warlord + Vanguard + Nidalee + SS) and you find a chosen cultist pyke on 2-5. Can you even buy this? Probably not. Would you buy this prior to 2-5. without a doubt. Say I’m playing around cultist keeper opener with (Elise + keeper + 2 cultists + supporting unit for cultist) and I find a vanguard garen/nautilus… At this point you’re just banking your last chosen isn’t a fiora or game is doomed since you most likely have to roll on 3-2 for a specific chosen that can fit your comp… The examples can go infinite but the point I’m getting at is that chosens give too much direction and as the game goes later, the chosens that you can buy are limited so players that hit a chosen early are in just a much better spot without even looking at units held/units sold for eco… You can almost always predict who is going top 2 at 3-5 based on “just hitting a chosen” Warlord jarvan with a katarina on stage 2? That’s a guaranteed top 2, got outplayed I guess. Zed chosen with RFC… nice. 2. Lantern items feel AWFUL to play against. Target dummy strong against duelist, asol, aatrox. Loaded dice beyond broken if you’re playing a reroll comp. Reforger, remover and item(s) benefit win streakers since their board can hold items more readily. I will admit that it’s balanced because over 100 games, you will be playing duelist, asol, aatrox, reroll or winstreaking but isn’t chosen mechanic as well? What I’m saying is that it just feels awful when you’re playing brawlers / nasus early game and the lobby gets dropped a belt or a chain and anyone who can make sunfire gets a free win against you. You’re playing mage a sol, and entire lobby gets 2 bows on 4-6 for their olaf/samira/kayle and you don’t have a single item holder. (you don’t play rakan unless you have elder sol) If you’re playing a fast 8 comp and lobby strength is accelerated, you probably have to roll on 7 but rolling on 7 feels like lottery half the time since sometimes your board is established around your chosen. 3. Playing fast 8 comps, carries in set 4.5 use a specific set of items and synergies. Without them, the strength of the unit plummets drastically. The only carry that is flexible in items is Kayle because she does so well with aura items but can also use every stat in the game. Defensive, AS, AP. Champions like talon who needs IE, (real carry is morgana with morello), olaf who need runaans feels so frustrating to play… You slam items such as runaans/IE mid game on tristana/shyvana to win streak / save hp and on stage 5 (level 8), if you don’t hit olaf/talon, you’re essentially just going to be bleeding out the rest of your hp for an inevitable 6th. You can top 4 if you have the hp from early and that way you bleed out slower than the rest of the low rollers. The skill expression does come from salvaging a 5th that would usually be an 8th by trying to play what you’re given on stage 5 but a game that’s just doomed to 4th at best? Furthermore, have you seen Olaf without runaans and slayer? The unit feels like a 2 cost. Have you seen ashe without hunter or elderwood? The unit feels like a 4 cost. Olaf needs specific items. Ashe wants 2 offensive items and a defensive item. Certain combinations are stronger than others, but the unit doesn’t feel as hopeless as Olaf without runaans. I think part of it is the champions identity and strength come from the synergy and not the actual unit. Asol – good spot, can use aura items and do well with all combos of AP Kayle – good spot, can use aura items and do well without RFC Morgana – ok spot, has always been much stronger with morello but shes not a solo carry anyway and she does okay with leftover items Olaf – runaans Talon – ie Samira – 5 cost and needs DB at 1 star Closing notes… So when people complain about reroll comps, they’ve always been in the meta, but now they’re just rewarded more for rerolling because of the chosen mechanic giving direction and lanterns favoring strong boards and direction on top…
Deal with chosen odds early but it might make reroll comps even stronger
w/e, pray don’t low roll
Buff units, take away from synergy (add creativity mid game as well)
“YOU’RE SO PICKY WITH CHOSEN!!!!!!” gl top 4ing in a top 20 tournament with your off tempo keeper elise, let alone qualifying for the tournament in the first place -^
4x games have become incredibly bloated and need to learn from boardgames
Full disclosure, I'm stealing this idea from kawaiisocks based on this comment and I think it warrants discussion as a topic. 4x games, for those who don't know, are large scale strategy games that see players (typically) managing an empire and engaging in war, diplomacy, trade, exploration, and resource exploitation to drive economies and military engines. The namesake is originally short for "EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate" but they're also often known as grand strategy games. The most common examples are the Civilization series as well as many of Paradox's games (Stellaris, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis) - at least among video games. I personally like these types of games, to a point, I always get very excited to play them and then after a couple hours come to the unfortunate conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing anymore. My play quickly starts to lack intentionality outside of a vague attempt to expand. Intentionality is essentially informed decision making, allowing you to decide based on intent rather than whim, randomness, or make decisions that go against your intent due to a lack of information. Decisions in these games are important, but too often I find myself defaulting to a non-decision because the consequences are unclear and difficult to comprehend. Cause and effect is very difficult to parse without intimate game knowledge, and suboptimal decisions seem to not matter much until it's too late. I'm sure many have similar experiences. A "I had no idea this was going to be a problem 30 turns ago," and not because like someone declared a surprise war on you - simple stuff that really should be predictable but aren't because our minds become fatigued by an overload of information - no matter how many explanations and tooltips the games offer. And hell, some mechanics are straight up hidden. The games rely on computers to do hundreds of different calculations with many diverse and large numbers that are no problem for computers, but my feeble human mind can't wrap itself around them all. There are too many things, how can anyone fully comprehend the consequences of their or their opponent's actions in any given game? This causes player actions, aside from a few very dedicated fans, to lack intentionality. Board games do not have this problem because they cannot rely on computers as administrators, everything must be comprehensible to the players or else the game does not work This initially comes across as a major limitation, but I find it incredibly liberating at the same time. It means designers have to make a game that players need to understand how each mechanic works in its entirety and regularly keep in mind. This means a ton of the fat is cut and numbers and admin is kept manageable (ideally, some still fail at this). Twilight Imperium is one of the largest board games out there. It clocks in at around an 8-12 hour playtime. Victory is decided one way: Who gets to 10 (or 14) points first. You can at most get one to three points in a single turn, with the largest point gains being open knowledge. Despite its massive size, it is incredibly slim compared to most video game 4x games. Twilight Imperium is an epic space opera about politics, trade, and conquest. It features dozens of races with unique playstyles - it is has a rulebook with some 100 different items. People start in a home system and expand out, trying to remain King of the Hill to gain points (just one method of several) in a space that's too small, yet war is too costly, leaving players in an uneven tension trying to control as much space as possible without becoming weak. It's massive, yet even on a first playthrough - though there is a significant learning curve - players can act with intentionality. It's not because the game is simple, it's not, but it is manageable and comprehensible. In Civ VI I couldn't tell you how to get to certain techs, I'd have to consult the tech tree which I can never memorize. It takes many turns to get there, how many? Don't know. Based on what? Science buildings. How many? Don't know. Depends on how many cities and other techs I have. And if I get inspirations for others. In TI4 - how do I get the top of the line red tech? Have three other red techs or (there's four total) or a combination of that and one or more of the planets with red tech bonuses. That's it - easy to plan for, if I want something, I know how to get it. When do I get that tech? Well, if I can get a "gain technology" action off (which happens regularly, but has costs associated) I can get one tech - so if I beeline it for that red tech, I can get there in like four rounds. Or - if I grab a red tech planet, three rounds! Ah, and the war sun requires three red, one green, one yellow - so if I really try I can unlock this super powerful unit within six rounds and be a menace, potentially. Now that's not a great strategy, most of the time war suns aren't bothered with because the cost is high - but they do offer a real clear advantage. The important thing I'm trying to show here is that mentally calculating a plan is relatively easy. Plans rarely hold together with the changing landscape, but you can make them, you can act with intent - you can say "I want this, this is cool" and visualize the path to it. Where there is uncertainty is combat, and that uncertainty is due to the nature of dice rolls being unpredictable - but this is to the game's benefit. The game's deliberate with its uncertainty, allowing the possibility for unexpected defeats and victories, making the decision to initiate a conflict a known gamble. What's also uncertain is how the other players will act and what you can or cannot convince them of. Everyone is different, but figuring it out requires engaging with the players. This is great! This is what you play a social game for after all. You're not here to try to figure out how some obtuse AI calculates their decisions, you're seeing if your friend is going to hold a grudge over that last battle. You can sort of do this with video games, but I find most 4x games deemphasize this. Board games are, by nature, more open with information - and they typically play into this. Again, it allows one to act with intentionality - I might not be aware of what will happen, but I can make educated predictions and play around that possibility space. There's only a few spaces I have to worry about, not literally hundreds of tiles with fog of war over them. TL;DR: Board games are actually mentally manageable by nature, or at least are intended to be. Video games have gotten away with letting their mechanics and admin bloat to a degree where grand strategy and 4x games require either expertise or being okay with not making informed decisions most of the time. And I don't believe this is to the benefit of these 4x games, I believe it makes them bloated and frustrating once the novelty wears off and you're tasked with dozens of fiddly mechanics that the game doesn't even expect you to know, but are impactful. Sorry about the rambling. This could absolutely be better organized. But eh.
Opinion: All martial classes (sans rogue) should have gotten a Multiattack class feature.
So as many people might know, one of the main complaints about martial characters vs spellcasting characters is an inability to deal with many combatants at once. Simply put, with the exception of a single subclass, all martial classes lack the capacity to attack more than 4 or 5 enemies a turn, even if they are at 20th level. One could make the argument that a martial character's specialty should be in single target damage over AOE damage with the spellcasters taking over that portion of the game and being allowed to shine there. It's not a bad idea, and I see where they're coming from. However, the problem is that this logic is only applied one way. Because spellcasters are more than capable of dealing high amounts of single target damage. Admittedly, it costs them more in the way of spell slots, but the point is that they have the luxury of choice. They can choose between single target, AOE, or utility. This is a choice that martial characters do not have. They are restricted to single target attacks or ineffective distribution of extra attacks. All martial characters, except for one subclass: the Hunter Conclave of Rangers. At 11th level, Hunters gain access to the Multiattack class feature, which as an Action allows them to make a Whirlwind Attack:
Whirlwind Attack. You can use your action to make melee attacks against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.
or a Volley attack:
Volley. You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon’s range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.
I think that every martial character should have been given some kind of feature that was similar to these, if not these exact same features. Something that requires a full Action to use in exchange for the opportunity to hit a larger number of targets. Back in the playtest packets for 5th edition, it was actually exactly like this. There was no Extra Attack feature for martial characters, only an increasing number of weapon damage dice (similar to how the Rogue is currently designed). And instead of just the Battlemaster Fighter having Superiority Dice, all martial characters had them. Whirlwind Attack was one of the maneuvers available for choice. But in the current iteration of the game would it actually be a problem to give characters this class feature? I don't think it would be. From a player choice standpoint, Whirlwind Attack is and would be a mechanic used to gamble on high risk/high reward situations. The ability to hit up to 7 creatures at once (assuming it is the player character who is walking into the enemy and not the enemy surrounding them) balanced out by the possibility of getting beat on by 7 creatures at once. Volley is a safer feature, but still one that expends resources at an alarmingly fast rate. A quiver only holds 20 arrows after all. From a balance perspective, the AOE damage of a character increases, but not by much. 8 creatures is the maximum a player character could possibly hit with Whirlwind Attack, but with the way that creatures scatter around a battlefield, you're most likely to be hitting just 3 or 4 creatures at a time. And you'd be dealing what? Anywhere between 1d4+modifier to 2d6/1d12+modifier per creature at most. Barely any more than a standard Scorching Ray spell. Certainly miles less than the 8d6 per creature of a Fireball. There's a few extra little interaction mechanics to consider, such as a Paladin's Smite which at adds 1d8 radiant damage to all weapon attacks at 11th level or the Barbarian's extra rage damage, but overall, I don't think it would break any games. I suppose a Paladin could use his full Divine Smite on every creature he hits for a huge damage increase or a Monk could use Stunning Strike on every one for crowd control, but in both cases it would require an extreme expenditure of resources from them and thus balancing it out. Again, still less damage and a greater cost than using a single 3rd level Fireball. The most important thing would be that AOE abilities like this would increase a martial character's options. If their options are only to hit things or not to hit things, they should at least be given different ways to hit things.
Hunter or Huntress Chapter 65: Uhm Who Is In Charge?
What is this only a day between posts? it's a miracle. The sleep schedule has taken a hit for this one so I hope you enjoy it. Twoflower68 is trucking along trying to keep this all a lot less messy than the results of 3 AM writing by a goblin with a chaingun-typewriter normally would. Anywho it's time we see how our impromptu boy band gets along and whether Sapphire has already been bored to death from sitting around. So let's get on with the show. ko-fi for those feeling generous Sapphire FirstPreviousNext __________________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 65: Uhm Who Is In Charge? “I told you we should have brought someone who knew where we were going” Jarix protested as they flew along the forest's edge. They had been at this for nearly an hour now and no sign of any dragonettes. Tom reckoned Jarix was fast even on the cruise Tom reckoned maybe 130 to 140 as they went along. Meaning they had likely covered over 80 kilometers already accounting for a bit of backtracking here and there. And yet they had found nothing. “This doesn’t make sense, could they still be on the ground searching for those herb things?” Tom questioned. “Look don’t ask any of us, we have no clue” Radexi defended. “Let’s land for a bit before we get completely lost.” “Okay then, go down low and circle back again, I’m used to navigating by ground, let’s see if we can find where we hunted those red deer.” “Fine, at least that is more fun than this,” Jarix replied, clearly not very optimistic. Radexi and Tom took a shoulder each as they sat peering out ahead trying to spot something. It took a while but they finally came across a familiar-looking hilltop. “There, left turn one eighth” They seriously needed to improve on this system. “Left turn” Jarix replied, flying over the hilltop and sure enough there were the tracks left by his quadbike… why hadn’t they just followed those? “Goddammit, I’m an idiot. We could just have followed those tracks” “What why… what is that?” Jarix questioned. “My quad bike, you’ll see soon enough those lead home.” “You really aren't good at this are you?” Radexi added from behind. “Yeah yeah, I can't fly that’s my excuse. Well, we are where we are supposed to now. So where are they?” “I’m gonna get some altitude so they can see us.” Jarix climbed up hard, he was surprisingly nimble for his size and even seemed to be able to match the dragonettes for climb-rate. He wasn’t even breathing hard from doing so either. “Jarix targets two-thirds left. Is that them?” Radexi asked, pointing to the horizon. Tom strained to look. He did make out four dots on the horizon which seemed to be approaching. That was behind them though. “Yep” came the reply from Jarix. “Turning to intercept” It took a few minutes for the range to close but eventually Tom could make them out as well. As they reached each other the dragonettes turned to match Jarix's direction, setting down on his back. All seeming a little winded, especially Wiperna. “Why didn’t you stop? We’ve been chasing for kilometers." Fengi questioned setting down. “I didn’t see you” Tom replied. Zarko looked less than pleased. “Who was rear lookout?” Radexi and Tom looked at each other. “For a teacher you sure suck at learning Tom and I expect better from you.” She went pointing at Radexi. Wiperna was still wheezing trying to catch her breath clearly not used to this kind of flying. “Whu… why are you so fast?” “That is my job, who gave me such a kind compliment?” Jarix responded. “Wiperna” She got out. “Right, you’re the one whose fields I need to plow I think” “This is a weird day” Wiperna went, giving up and just laying down. “So you all look tired” Tom tried in as innocent a voice as he could manage. “I’m not” Jackalope replied with her usual lack of tact standing proudly with of all things two jackalopes hanging over her shoulder. ‘touche’ Tom thought to himself. “Well, that is good to hear” Zarko replied in a discouraging tone which achieved exactly nothing. “Wanna race?” “Uhh yeah,” Jarix replied as if that was the easiest question ever, which to his credit it might well be. “Not with all you lot on board you are rather heavy you know” Tom looked around at the six people currently standing on Jarix’s back while flying. Well, Wiperna was still lying down which didn't really help with the space situation. “Oh shut it Jarix it’s good exercise,” Zarko replied “I flew nearly a week to get here. I don't need more exercise right now and my belly is full from last night as well.” “Yesterday you were starving, now you're overfed. Does a happy medium exist?” “Fewer people on my back would do nicely” “Oh, poor dragon who can’t handle a few passengers” “Really? How about I try and stand on you one day and see how that goes” They were clearly joking. Tom guessed they had known each other for a while. Based on what Archeon said, Jarix should be good for over a ton of cargo probably more. “And I only said if I was going to race someone.” “Uhm before any racing could we not get some hunting?” Fengi asked. “Tom, could you do that trick you and Sapphire did again?” “Sure I think Jarix has a better idea though.” There was a bit of a crackle, then a boom, that made everyone flinch, followed by a chuckle from Jarix. “Oh yeah, I do.” Jackalopes excitement was both visible and audible as she cheered “Best hunt ever. No offense Tom” ”Hell no I can’t compete with a flying lightning cannon… Not yet at least” “Isn’t that irresponsible?” Wiperna questioned. “I’m not a huntress, who has seniority here?”Zarko replied. It was at that moment Tom realized the catastrophic error that had been committed, as he turned to Jackalope who was standing there obliviously. The only silvered huntress present. As it finally clicked for her, she began cackling madly rubbing her hands together. “Let's get started” __________________________________________________________________________________ Sapphire was getting the distinct impression Baltehon was making this easy for her. Not once had she even had to go for something philosophical or even a metaphor. She didn’t mind, but after a while, the game did sort of die a bit. She had learned the one to her left, was called Canabrera, she was a little older than Sapphire, only a few years though and they had gotten a decent conversation going. She even knew where Vultcha Keep was, apparently having made a few stops there in the past, having served with another trader who had elected to take some time off having made enough money for a while. Canabrera was one of the newly hired escorts following the bloody battle to reach Bizmati keep. After a bit, Canabrera brought out some dice in a little box with a glass lid. Sapphire hadn’t seen one before. it was rather clever, even if you had to time the dice throws with the wingbeats to keep them from rolling around. Sapphire had never been a gambling person, but a friendly game was always good fun. She glanced over at Baron every once in a while. As much as she would like to berate the bitch all the way there she was fairly confident things were gonna be more entertaining over here. She wondered how they would manage with Jarix back home. She had never seen a dragon hunt before, Esmeralda would get him in line though she was sure of that… Wait. “Dakota!” “What is it Saph?” Dakota replied, seemingly a bit confused at the sudden outburst. “We left Jacky in charge of the hunt, with a dragon and Tom” Dakota developed a sort of deep thousand-yard stare. Not answering “Ohh noo” Balethon added, shaking his head. “What’s the matter, surely it can’t be that bad, she seemed friendly enough,” Canebrera questioned. __________________________________________________________________________________ “Target dead ahead, we’ll break ’em up for ya. Fengi, Wiperna with me. Wanna come Zarko?” “I’m fine here, the boys need some oversight I think.” This was yet another in the long list of stupid ideas that might work. Tom should maybe have tried to take some more responsibility but Jackalope was in charge so any disasters were on her after all. IT didn’t hurt that he really wanted to see how this lightning breath worked. “Suit yourself, Geronimo!” “Does she actually know what she is doing?” Radexi questioned. “More than any of us I’m afraid” Tom answered. “She seems very sensible” Jarix added, sounding perfectly serious. Perhaps assessing people’s character should be worked into the lessons Tom thought to himself. The three girls set about herding the deer away from the forest further into the open marshes. Jarix following behind from above so as not to scare them yet. “Now Tom this is gonna be a steep dive. Make sure those goggles are secure and you hang on tight.” Zarko went in a serious tone. Tom had no clue how quickly an 8-ton dragon could dive but it was likely fairly fast, so he did as instructed. He moved to make sure he had both good foot and handholds. “They’re starting to split up now, here we go” Jarix pitched down pulling his wings in close to his sides as they began to fall. The sensation of being pulled down by Jarix was different from when Tom had flown with the dragonettes. They fell at about the same rate this was like holding onto an elevator with its cables cut. As the dive continued Tom guessed they were well above terminal velocity for a human. They had maybe 1.000 meters of altitude to scrub and Jarix didn’t seem to mind falling most of the way in one go. Tom pulled himself close to Jarix lying as flat as he could manage the wind screaming in his ears. He had no clue how fast they were going, but he was fairly sure this was a new speed record for him in this world. Zarko and especially Radexi seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, even if Tom was unsure as to whether it was the dive or him providing the entertainment. As they approached the ground Jarix started to slowly extend his wings, but only by a little. Tom looked around fighting the wind to get a better look. He was making a kind of delta wing? As the young dragon started to pull up the familiar sense of G-forces returned it was a strange feeling when lying on top of something but it was no less thrilling. This was a proper rollercoaster. “Wuuuhuuu!!” Tom let out in glee. Oh yeah, this was about as much fun as he had imagined as a kid. They came upon the herd of red deer they were still traveling at considerable speed. Tom strained to get as good a look as he could manage, looking over the side in front of Jarix’s left-wing. He saw Jackalope off to the side, clearly positioned to get the best view she could as they came speeding by. Tom felt the hairs on his neck stand on end as the air around him almost started to crackle. The sound was more like that of a rail gun charging as Jarix inhaled it with a static electric whine that sent shivers down Tom’s spine. Followed by a single bright streak of bluish light that looked more like a beam than a lightning bolt. It impacted the ground in a split second resulting in a bright flash with lightning arcing in every direction, even in the middle of that day it was perfectly visible. No long breath spreading the love around, it was like a single shot that hit the ground, followed by an echoing boom. Jarix hadn’t even managed to hit one of the deer, but the electrical arcs could be seen spreading through the grass as they went by. Jarix pulled in a fresh breath letting out a sigh. “Pheew, that oughta do it” “Good shot, right on target” “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Radexi added. Tom looked behind them to see, maybe half a dozen deer all lying legs in the air, the grass blackened all around the small crater in the ground. The three girls came circling down as the remaining deer bolted in a blind panic. “Holy shit” Tom let out gawking. That was one hell of a weapon, and he had been worried about a damn machine gun. “Try that on for size, mister nearly as well-armed as me” Jarix went in a sarcastic tone, scoring a short laugh from Zarko and Radexi. “Not gonna argue with that. Though it would be more like a storm of lightning” “Oh I can do that too” Jarxi clarified “Spitting works great for ground targets though” “You can say that again” They had come down next to the others taking a look at the damage, which was extensive. Jackalope was beside herself with excitement of course. “That was awesome, look at them! I mean that one is a bit busted, but still, look at them!” Tom glanced around at the fairly singed looking deer, one clearly having been a bit close to the impact site. It was a disfigured mess hardly recognizable as a deer. He slid off Jarix to have a look around, inspecting the ground and the impact crater. “You want that one Jarix? I mean it’s already sorta cooked.” Jackalope then went. pointing at the chared deer. “Eew no, I don’t like raw meat, that’s for savages” “We can light a fire under it if you want” She continued “No thanks,” Jarxi replied, clearly not thrilled with the prospect. “Isn’t this cruel?” Wiperna had questioned, clearly disturbed by the scene. In hindsight bringing the resident animal lover along might not have been the brightest idea, they had ever had. “I doubt a deer has died this quickly around here in a while. Well short of when Sapphire decides to show off, anywho we need to get these back to the keep.” Jackalope’s answer sounding a tad annoyed at the part about Sapphire. “How much can you carry Jarix?” Jarix took a step back looking at all the six dead deer. “Five is no problem” He finally replied, looking at the mangled one Tom was now inspecting. “What’s the matter, soldier? Scared of blood?” Tom questioned “No of course not. I’ll take five, they look heavy.” “I guess we will have to come back for the last one then.” Tom just stated, getting up. “But my harness” Jarix pleaded. Tom had to admit it was very nice. Mostly made of the dark blue leather the dragonettes seemed to use for most things. There were some white pieces here and there though. Most of the handholds were polished metal too and there was even some engraving on parts of the armor plates. “A soldier that doesn’t want to get dirty? I have shown you what a soldier is expected to go through, does this look bad to you? Or do I need to get a mud bath going?” “I’ll take all six... think you can scrub it out?” Jarix went looking to Radexi with a pained expression on his face. “Sure thing boss” Well at least Radexi was still positive. “I’ll grant you though it’s a nice harness. Perhaps we should have something less nice made for things like this.” “But it’s mine though It was a gift from my mother.” “Yeah, but there is no use ruining it. It should survive a bit of blood though if it’s as well made as it looks.” Jarix just let out a discontented grump as an answer. By the time they had finished carrying all the deer up and lashing them down securely, Jarix looked more like a medivac for a fictional deer army than a hunter on the job. It did the trick though and they were soon airborne, the girls having gotten the herb collecting done prior to their arrival. They had matched cruising speeds, the dragonettes flying under their own power with Jarix breaking the wind for them. It wasn’t fair that he had to carry both everything and everyone, after all. They had tried to keep the mess to a minimum but still, Radexi would have his work cut out for him. They had set down outside the keep to begin the process of prepping the carcasses. Unkai and Herron had come down to meet them. In Tom and Esmeralda's stead, they had been tasked with taking care of the children for at least some of the day. Judging by the crying and the two very weary faces that had been a tall order even for a couple of hours. “Hey Turinia, how is it going?” Tom tried in his best diplomatic voice. “Holdey bit me” Turinia let out sobbing a bit. “Holdey! that isn’t nice. Come here let me have a look at that.” Well, bite might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but there were actually teeth marks. Tom had struggled a bit with coming to terms with the at times slightly more violent tendencies of the dragonettes. This wasn’t that bad though. “But she took my bricks!” “NO, I was playing with them!” “If you keep fighting over blocks of wood, like this you are never gonna get those legos I talked about. Now come here” Tom picked up Turinia to try and comfort her. “Now now, no harm done and you shouldn’t take what isn’t yours either. Would you two help them unload? I’ll take care of this.” Raulf and Herron looked rather relieved at the prospect of physical labor so they must have had a rough time of it. “Get yourself cleaned off Jarix and take some time off. There will be another movie tonight, a bit more fun than last time though..” “Another movie?” Jackalope questioned excitedly. “Yep two in fact, not about war though, but I think you are gonna like it.” Jackalope looked a little slack-eared, but Fengi and Wiperna definitely perked up at that. So with Kiran clambering up to his usual perched Tom went about the next duty of his day. Trying to figure out whose bricks had been stolen and by whom. Maybe he should just make more bricks for them. That would have to come after winding the coils for the motor though. He wondered if Shiva was still conscious enough to discuss that? __________________________________________________________________________________ So big dragon go *zap boom* and need some kleenex. As always I do hope enjoyed the chapter and the story as a whole, most of you certainly seem to do so. If you got any feedback, questions, or general banta by all means take to the comment's section below. I love prowling around down there looking for something interesting or hilarious. Until next time have an awesome day. ko-fi for those feeling generous FirstPreviousNext
Hello everyone; you may know of the new, OSR-focused magazine Knock! which is currently accepting pre-orders for a second (& final) printing after their initial, highly successful Kickstarter. Many of the articles published in Knock! #1 are drawn from the blogosphere, so I went ahead and collected as many as I could. About half of the random tables are unique to Knock! #1, so I did not find any web sources. A few articles also eluded me, although I tried to provide links to the authors' sites when related info was available online. Overall, the magazine provides a lot of unique art and other elements such as maps and interactive portions which can't be duplicated by the blogs listed here. With that being said, I was surprised by how little original content was included in the magazine, and also how long ago some of these articles were published. Knock! is currently calling for articles for the second edition (Knock! #2), so it will be interesting to see if they continue publishing the backlog, or focus more on new & original content. Without further ado, the list:
Postscript: I was disappointed to notice a few typos in the magazine during my review for this post. I used the video read-throughs by Questing Beast and Chris McDowall, so I don't have a physical copy, but the errors were still apparent. One example is the sub-header on the "Better Treasure" article, where "worth" is typo'd as "forth." The Table of Contents also doesn't entirely match the actual article titles as published. I hope this is something that the Knock! team improves for their second edition.
Guarding our assets: Victor Oladipo and the franchise's path forward
I had started writing a post about what the next steps for the franchise could entail when I realized that a huge amount of it revolves around one guy... the player return we got from the Harden trade who happens to be entering Unrestricted Free Agency in a few months. When the news came through that we had traded LeVert for Oladipo, many assumed that it was just a move to reduce salary by Tilman, but I reject that as overly pessimistic. Oladipo in his prime (which was not long ago at all) was a 2-time All Star and one of the premier defensive shooting guards in the league. His horrific injury has taken a bit of time to come back from, and worried Indiana enough to scare them off from wanting to deal with re-signing him to the max contract he will be requesting in Free Agency next summer. They saw so much value in having LeVert locked up on a cheaper deal for extra years that they were willing to take him on with his cancer concerns instead of dealing with a potential max deal for Vic. I don't see this as a salary move from Tilman so much as I see it as a gamble on a player returning from injury by Stone. Between taking chances on Wall, Boogie, and Nwaba, hoping players can come back from bad injuries is a common thread in his gambles and seems to be his "M.O.", so I'm thinking he honestly hopes Victor can come back to a significant percentage of his peak level. Trading Harden for a younger All-Star SG +8 FRP assets is a massive coup of a deal... if Oladipo is capable of playing close to the level he was at before his injury. Unfortunately, Victor hasn't gotten back to that level yet... But he isn't that far away, either. He has flashed his potential several times, but has had an equal number of horrific shooting nights. This lack of consistency is problematic, but if he could stabilize around the level of his better performances (which he is obviously capable of), there isn't really a question that he would be worth a near-max deal if not a full max. Obviously, getting that consistency back is his primary goal and there is no reason to believe that it isn't our hope for him as well. If he does, then we can feel safe signing him to a long-term deal or, if he returns to form quickly enough, we can flip him for more assets. The first option there is relatively straight forward. Re-signing him if he is close to his old production levels is a no-brainer. You've seen the reports that neither side are giving committed answers one way or the other at this point, which is sensible in terms of leverage in negotiations. Both sides know that he has more to prove and if he doesn't prove it, there isn't a good reason to offer him a max deal next summer. Some team will likely do it anyway, and there is even a chance that it may be us; but saying we are looking to do it before seeing that proof of play is a bad move (especially with no guarantee that another team will do it). It would be a mistake to offer him $34M/yr with 8% increases if he doesn't show serious progression from his current level of play. The question is... at what point does it no longer become a mistake? Here is a list of available UFAs next summer (from Hoops Rumors):
Although there are some interesting names on the list, unless Schroeder ends up with a FMVP or Jrue Holiday or Kawhi Leonard decide to leave their teams, Victor Oladipo is probably going to be the most sought-after Free Agent next summer. A fair number of teams have max space, so it is likely that he will get his max deal from somewhere. Oladipo has expressed interest in Miami, but they aren't likely to have a max slot available after signing Bam to his extension. A number of other teams do have plenty of space available, though, including the Knicks, Bulls, and Spurs. If you can't see where I'm going with this, the question is... should we also consider being a team that offers him a max contract? Obviously we don't want to get caught up in a bad contract that prevents us from missing out on other Free Agents! Well, who else on that list strikes you as someone we should spend money on? There are some interesting names. Harry Giles... Otto Porter... Hey, maybe we could get Kelly Oubre! But anyone we would want will also be wanted by another team, and there will be a bidding war that also makes that guy overpaid. In short, I'm suggesting that year 1 of an Oladipo max would not be a problem even if it were an overpay. Well what about year 2? Here is a list of available FAs the following summer:
Zach LaVine is obviously the highlight here. Aaron Gordon and Terry Rozier are some other interesting names (and it's worth pointing out that Brooklyn's Big 3 could opt-out and enter FA). Is the hope of convincing Zach LaVine to sign here worth leaving open space for? Maybe you think so, but I'd suggest it's not. Because here's the thing... We can trade Oladipo. Obviously we can trade him in the next 7 weeks, but we can trade him after re-signing him, too. In fact, as long as he doesn't get re-injured or regress horribly (the latter being something we can probably determine this year if you aren't already convinced), it won't be so hard to move his contract. A 30% max contract is not the problem that a 35% supermax represents. Any of the big name Free Agents could be sign and traded by their teams in return for Oladipo. If his contract has turned negative, we may need to include a pick or two... but we have a lot of those! And using them to move a bad contract as a way to sign a top-tier FA really isn't a waste of picks. It's essentially the same thing as using picks to trade for a superstar (WHICH WE CAN ALSO DO! more on that in a minute). Using Oladipo as salary filler in future trades is a good reason on its own to keep him around. There is a chance the deal will look like an overpay, but unless he has a horrific injury or falls off a cliff (which doesn't seem likely, imo), it isn't going to be that negative. Victor will make over $10M/yr less than Harden is scheduled to make next year. Add that to an increased salary cap, and we can probably re-sign him to a max, re-sign Nwaba with Early Bird Rights, and along with Wall, Gordon, Wood, House, Tate, KJ, Ma$e and KPJ, have room to use the MLE and still fill out a roster while remaining under the tax. It's basically this year's roster minus PJ, Ben, and Brown, but with an MLE signing to help out. Is that a Championship roster? No. It is competitive and has significant upside if the youth improve and the vets recover further from injury, but Wall and Oladipo are not the top-tier superstar needed to win a title. But either one of them could easily be the 3rd best guy on a Championship team (with the other being sent away as salary match if/when such a deal arises) and resigning Vic - even to a max contract, if necessary - allows us time to find a trade for a superstar (or sign one in Free Agency by trading one of our guards). I hear you calling me crazy for suggesting it. But what are the alternatives? Let's game plan them out, too. The popular idea is trading Vic before the deadline for more assets. This is not a bad idea... in fact, it may even be a better plan than re-signing him... but only if he can bring back a good deal. What does a good trade for Oladipo look like? Well, in his prime he was a decidedly better player than Jrue Holliday, who just got traded for a decent player in Eric Bledsoe as well as 3 FRPs. It's unlikely that Oladipo will return to that form in the next 7 weeks (although not impossible, especially with the extra opportunity that Wood's injury affords him), but if he continues to flash that level of potential, we would be getting robbed to let go of him for anything less than 2 very lightly protected FRPs. If that's the price for someone to trade for him, do you see it happening? I really don't. Maybe we get lucky and Miami gets desperate. Maybe another contender with assets to spare (there aren't so many left) decides to throw down an offer with hopes of a promise that he will re-sign (likely a max contract) with them. Again, I don't see this as likely. It would be great if it happens, though! No, it is unlikely we can trade Oladipo for more than a FRP and some expiring filler. Now you may think that sounds like a good deal, but is it? Certainly it isn't good compared to what New Orleans got for Jrue, and while Oladipo doesn't look as good as Holiday right now, he undeniably has the potential to look that good. So the question is, do we certainly lose value on him by trading him on the cheap, or do we take a risk of losing value if he can't regain max-contract form. The former is obviously safer, the latter could obviously blow up if he has a career-ending injury (but it could also pay off with significantly higher rewards than a FRP). So unless we get a lucky deal, it comes down to what our appetite for risk is. I'd say roll the dice on Vic. He's only 28, so age is not really a factor on his next contract. It's completely a question of how close to his old self he can return to. We've seen some promising signs in the short season so far, and will now get a month of real opportunity to gather information on him. And here's the biggest problem with trading him for bad value... if we trade him for a pick without getting a very solid player in return, our roster will absolutely get worse. It drops us from our current status of 'bottom bracket playoff team' to 'No-Mans land'... being in the 9-12 range. That's a horrible spot to land. If we are there, it makes more sense to tank, leading us into the last section of this essay on guarding our assets... DON'T TANK It's 2 AM here and I've been writing for too long, so I'm gonna make this short and sweet. Tanking sucks. Losing sucks. We don't want to be losers if we can be semi-competitive. Showing a commitment to winning attracts Free Agents, keeps Wood happy, and allows us to maintain a franchise that is literally one piece away from being right back as a contender. We are not Oklahoma City. Free Agents want to play in Houston. Maybe its not LA, NY, or Miami, but there aren't many other cities above us on the list of destinations. If we trade for a guy, he's liable to stay. We don't need to rely on high draft picks to get talent. (side note: tanking is not even a reliable way of getting talent! Between reduced lottery odds and the uncertainty of high picks panning out, it's a bad way to depend on getting a superstar. Philly and OKC are the closest examples of it 'working out' and those were under the old lottery odds... now it would be significantly harder. Additionally, remaining competitive keeps our Brooklyn pick swaps in play as being assets. If we sell all assets and aim for the bottom, then it will be a long climb out in which at least 2 and quite possibly 3 of our swaps are basically completely surrendered, whereas keeping competitive can allow those swaps to become quite valuable even if the Nets don't bottom out as badly as they did for Boston. Not to mention the increased danger of giving much better picks to OKC) Signing or trading for stars are MUCH more reliable methods... and we now have the picks to trade with. So that should be our preferred path to contention. Wait for the next top-tier superstar to become unhappy and fire away to get him. Only OKC and NO can compete with our picks package (and we can offer a decent player in return as an additional bonus!) So when that next disgruntled star shakes free (which has happened more and more frequently), we stand poised to strike stronger than any team in the league. A new era of contenders is on the horizon. The Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Nets are aging out. The Nuggets and Celtics are the types of teams we look to be competing against in a few years. Those are the superstars we need to be worrying about for now... not the old guard, but the young ones. Tanking next year puts us way behind in a rebuild that is only one move away. So get those thoughts out of your heads. We can compete with those teams with Wood, another star, and Oladipo or Wall along with all our promising young talent. We will be back sooner than anyone expects. And as surprising as it sounds, the first step may well be signing Oladipo to a max contract next summer.
From a Publisher re: Kickstarter Costs in Small Campaigns
Hi boardgames, I'm Zack Hiwiller. I've been posting here a long time, so I hope you will excuse one self-promoting post that has some honest discussion in it. This week, I launched my first board game Kickstarter for Scribbletown, a tight, thinky roll-and-write game that I first signed to a publisher in 2016(!) but which got caught up in some unrelated business turmoil. The rights reverted back to me this past year, so I'm taking the dive into self-publishing on my own. If you would like to check out the Kickstarter, it is live right now. There are links for the TTS module and a free print-and-play sample in the campaign. I certainly won't mind if you go check it out. But that's not why I'm here. There have been threads every few days about the rising costs overall of Kickstarters and I want to see if I can help shed some light. Picture by Aspie Gamer Girl I want to talk a little bit about the costs involved in designing and publishing a game. Scribbletown's price is $35. It's a price I came to after a lot of work and deliberation. I knew I wanted big, etched dice from the first prototype I made. Since playing Let's Make a Bus Route, I knew I wanted everyone to have laminated boards. Since playing On Tour, I knew I wanted to support more than 4 players out of the box. These production goals rise the cost significantly and allow me to at least bill the game as "deluxe", but the quality of components aren't the problem. Print Run Sizes: There are tiers of publishers in terms of what size print runs they can support. When everyone was freaking out about Stonemaier not printing enough Wingspan copies upon release, that first run was something like 10,000 copies. Wingspan wouldn't even be a big production run by the standards of the biggest hits in the industry. It's impossible to know what the sales are of other games, but for the names of games most of you recognize, that wouldn't be an outrageously-sized print run. Most manufacturers will not take a print run under 1,000 copies. It isn't worth the fixed cost of creating dies and such to do so. The smaller the print run, the higher the unit cost. If I were able to print 2,000 copies of Scribbletown, I could do so around 25% cheaper than 1,000 copies. Additionally, consider all of the costs of design, development, art, advertising (oh God the marketing costs), and other business expenses are all fixed so on a per-unit basis they are higher when you print fewer. It makes games with smaller print runs much more expensive to make than would be seen just by looking at the component costs. Consider that not having a built-in audience from previous projects mean that new publishers have to spend more on marketing to be seen. My costs for marketing have exceeded my cost for art. Kickstarter Inertia: Let's say I could get 2,000 backers. (Fingers crossed). I couldn't go in and retroactively lower the cost of pledges by 25%. Kickstarter doesn't allow for that(*). So instead, I use the economies of scale to produce stretch goals (and hopefully bank some profit that will cover unexpected costs). But being successful at the original (higher) price lets publishers know that the market will bear that price, so there is no incentive to lower the price even at higher print run volumes unless they believe there was untapped consumer surplus at lower prices. I think you see this in the exploding prices for minis games. They have enormous fixed costs (in comparison), so the price at the minimum order number is high. But when those campaigns go gangbusters, it just proves to everyone else that people will pay those high prices. The cycle gets vicious. A handful of folks have pledged a dollar just to comment on my campaign or message me that they would never pay $35 for a roll-and-write, regardless of the components or complexity. Then they cancel their dollar pledge. I get it. Things can only be priced at what the market will bear. Money is always tight for everyone. But we don't know what the market will bear in advance, so you base it off of the cost of doing business and the price of games with a similar weight, complexity, and audience. I'm hoping people will see Scribbletown and compare it to medium-light and mid-weight Euros rather than the filler fare they currently see roll-and-writes as. In that case, $35 is a steal. Shipping Costs: I could make the game with cheaper (and fewer) components and lower the price marginally, but I can't lower the shipping costs significantly. Even if I were to lower the weight by 25%, shipping wouldn't get 25% cheaper. Did you know that the costs of shipping have gone up _significantly_ in the last year? Most campaigns are already charging less for shipping than the actual total costs of shipping and handling and just absorbing the cost as part of the unit cost. And psychologically, there is more pause given for a $20 game with $15 shipping than there would be with a $35 game with $15 shipping, even if they end up being a similar weight/volume. Lowering the overall price makes the shipping look _more_ expensive because of the ratio of price to shipping. I suspect it makes people want to wait for a retail release that may never come so that they can avoid the shipping costs. My goal for this project is to break even and pay myself $0/hour for the hundreds of hours of design and production prep (and sleepless nights) that has gone into this project. Why? Because it will help me build for whatever the next project will be. I'm hoping to make this work long-term. But even with Kickstarter, with the ease of use of the global supply chain, with middleware services and etc that make it possible for anyone to do this, the momentum issues of starting from a small audience put new publishers behind the eight ball and make just surviving look greedy. TL;DR: - The more copies you can print, the lower the costs, the more units you can amortize fixed costs over and the cheaper it can be for consumers. - New publishers without a built-in audience can't print large numbers, so their costs will be necessarily higher per-unit. - Kickstarter doesn't allow you to change prices mid-campaign, so a campaign will likely charge whatever they think they can make do with at the smallest possible print run, even if they end up having a larger print run. This creates a cycle where that price becomes the norm even if the publisher benefits from economies of scale. - It's hard for new and small publishers. Be kind. We know you are price sensitive. If we have success, then some day we can get into distribution and you can benefit from the scale that allows us to make games for stores that don't charge shipping. But we have to get there first. If you want to take a gamble on a new game, try supporting independent publishers. Your marginal dollar means so much more to us than it does to those who can afford big print runs. - Shameless end plug: Scribbletown on Kickstarter. :-) Feel free to AMA. I may write about the costs of pitching designs to publishers versus self-publishing sometime in the future. Another picture by Aspie Gamer Girl. Check out her channel on Youtube for content in both English and Spanish. She's great. (*) I recently pledged in a campaign that offered discounts during the KS by providing credits in the pledge manager. That's an interesting approach and I hope to see it more often in the future.
[Let's Build] Attractions in a demon pleasure palace that aren't sexual
My players are going to be visiting the palace of a demon lord of pleasure who's more CN than CE. I want to show that despite his title, he represents all forms of pleasure and good feelings, not just sex. Also space in his realm doesn't work the same way as it does in the mortal plane. He essentially has an infinite amount of space to work with and can customize it as he pleases, so there are no size constraints.
A casino to feel the thrill of gambling.
A dining hall with an endless buffet that visitors are allowed to eat as much as they wish.
An idyllic beach with perfectly white sand to relax or play on.
An arena where gladiators brawl it out against each other. The point of it isn't to kill each other as much as make the battles look stunning to the audience.
A hotel with the most comfortable beds possible. Here anyone with enough money can enjoy a good rest after all the excitement.
A beautiful and well tended garden filled with aromatic flowers and sweet fruits.
A vineyard where exquisitely-aged wine can be produced just by pressing the grapes. (u/_SovietMudkip_)
A petting zoo full of the babies of dangerous creatures. (u/_SovietMudkip_)
An opulent concert hall where the best musicians of the realms perform (u/_SovietMudkip_)
A small, cozy looking wooden library, with a cushioned bay window where rain gently scatters against the glass and a cup of some hot liquid gently rising with steam. (u/QuietOracle)
An owl-bear hugging zoo. Go to sleep in the embrace of their soft down. (u/QuietOracle)
The room of sensory experiences. The room itself is fairly plain, with the main feature being long tables running the length of the room. On closer inspection there are fist-sized carved holes, each one holding a small round crystal... (u/QuietOracle)
A room with dozens of sacks filled with beans, lentils and grains where visitors can put their hands in and let the contents run through their fingers. (u/_WhiteCubeCat_)
A hag (or any other long nailed creature) giving visitors a scalp massage. (u/_WhiteCubeCat_)
A museum of little-known or long-forgotten art pieces, sculptures, and history. (u/MoonlightMancer)
A festival full of colors, music, and drinks. Everyone seems to love you, and you can’t stop laughing. (u/MoonlightMancer)
A hallway of endless doors. In each room is someone you know, complimenting you endlessly, sharing every positive, even begrudgingly jealous thought they ever had about you. (u/MoonlightMancer)
A hot spring/spa, with fluffy towels, those showers that are like rain with perfect water pressure, mud baths, and refreshing food and drink. (u/lionesslindsey)
A room full of people that constantly give you validation and laugh at all your jokes. (u/CountryJeff)
Never-ending line of gold chalices, crystal vases, silver artwork, and other valuables. (u/PutridMeatPuppet)
People who are “better” than you are marched in a stripped of their superior qualities. Beautiful people are disfigured and turned ugly. Wealthy powerful people are ruined and made to beg you for pennies. (u/PutridMeatPuppet)
Mass groups of people enter the room and tell you how they admire you and how wonderful you are. They stroke your ego and inflate your pride. (u/PutridMeatPuppet)
Servants do everything for you. Feed you, give you drinks, wash you, wipe your arse, etc. (u/PutridMeatPuppet)
You are given a wickedly barbed leather whip. A slave creature is bound to a post and you can whip this creature to inflict your wrath upon them as much as you desire. If the poor soul dies, another is brought in to replace them. (u/PutridMeatPuppet)
'Knight for a day'. The full experience; lance, shiny outfit, a squire, a trusty stead, a dragon and a princess/prince to rescue. (u/mr_earthman)
The magical equivalent of a holo deck (u/cyber-viper)
Wide, flat plain with the fastest vehicles in the multiverse (a good place to use the Avernus vehicles) (u/Clickclacktheblueguy)
A selection of cities and villages for you to destroy with war machines or your own magic. (u/Clickclacktheblueguy)
A collection of wand that allow you to test out powerful magic. (u/Clickclacktheblueguy)
A magical version of a movie theatre, allowing you to watch all manner of stories, true and legendary. (u/Clickclacktheblueguy)
A moderately large pool where small battleships with tiny animated crewmen can be deployed in teams to shell and board each other for the audience's amusement. Honored guests can put their strategic abilities to a test against other players by directly giving orders to their ships, and in certain hours guests may even swim in the pool to live out the power fantasy of being a sea monster. (u/VIixIXine)
A colorizer-device that transforms any clothes/armoweapons/other gear to any desired hue you wish (as long as it doesn’t affect the workings of the gear) (u/PaigeOrion)
A grand screen, showing a nearly infinite number of (screen)plays from all space and time, including the show with the disgraced human paladin delivering a green baby gnome back to his home land through incredible odds. (u/PaigeOrion)
A tiara that allows you to experience the sensory experience of a black cat as long as you wear it and close your eyes. (u/PaigeOrion)
A plethora of small, multicolored blocks that will magically interlock with one another to render almost any architectural structure imaginable. (But don’t step on them barefoot!) (u/PaigeOrion)
A band of musicians who are the perfect musical backup for any performances. Alone, they are more low key, but no less skilled, playing haunting melodies of unknown origin. (u/PaigeOrion)
A massive walk-in closet where you can try in any clothes in any fashion you like. (u/Tezla44)
A "schadenfreude" theatre, with shows that rely on slapstick and cringe comedy. (u/Martinus_XIV)
A room designed to give you closure. When you enter this room, someone you loved and lost is there, sitting in a couch. The room feels vaguely familiar, but you can't place why. If Detect Magic is used, the room is full of magic (divination, transmutation, illusion) but the person seems like a normal person. You can chat with them for as long as you like. They behave just as you remember them, with the good and the bad. (u/ohsurenerd)
A theatre performing the most magnificent tragedies. When you watch the performance, you find yourself completely enraptured: you cheer when things go right, scream when something terrifying happens, and moan and weep at the inevitable horrible ending. When you leave, it feels like removing a backpack full of lead that you'd been carrying for so long you'd forgotten it was there. (u/ohsurenerd)
A room where there's a button, there's someone outside and it explains that if you enter there's a 50/50 chance of you dying or not, the room won't actually kill you and it's there just to make you feel the pleasure of near death experience. (u/SupremeGodDictator)
A massage parlor with the universes best staff pampering your every need as you receive the most relaxing massage of your life whether it be scalp, back, foot, full body, etc. Has the worlds fluffiest towels and robes to luxuriate in while you wait or if you simply want to sit in a comfy chair and enjoy your ache free muscles. (u/Blue_Mando)
An arena where you and your opponents heal near instantly, and you can fight endlessly (u/ellen-the-educator)
A reenactment of your greatest failures in life, but this time they turn into your greatest achievements. (u/CountryJeff)
A room with the world's finest works of art.... and a myriad of implements you can use to destroy them. (u/redrosebeetle)
A torture chamber with mages on hand to create illusions of the people you wish to torture. Or increasingly realistic versions of them, depending on the level of magic you wish to implement. (u/redrosebeetle)
A room full of gold and jewels you can roll around in, ala Scrooge McDuck. But woe betide anyone who tries to take a souvenir.... (u/redrosebeetle)
As you're walking through the gardens, a person comes up to you. They introduce themselves as an adventurer who's also here on a quest. They seem to be the same class as you, and they're incredibly attractive-- almost exactly your type. You immediately click and end up spending the day together, talking about everything and anything. You tell them things you've never told anyone else before. They understand everything you tell them, almost innately, but they're still impressed by your feats and your stories. The two of you find an empty bedroom and close the door behind you. It's perfect in its imperfections. In the morning they're gone. No matter where you look, you can't find them. (u/ohsurenerd)
A room lined with shelves and shelves of bottles and vials containing a crimson liquid flowing slowly (like a syrup), all with small labels on them. As you inspect the labels, you realize they've all got names on them: famous adventurers, kings and queens, great sages. If you drink one, you experience a selection of their memories as they experienced them: battles won, discoveries made, historical alliances and friendships being forged or broken... (u/ohsurenerd)
A room that turns anyone that enters it into a child. It is full of every toy imaginable (u/arual_x)
A tour of a chocolate factory. Kobolds work there, and the owner, who gives the tour, is a Metallic Dragon in Humanoid form. (u/arual_x)
A fortune teller who has a Deck of Many Things with only the good cards. If you in any way offend them, they will sleight of hand vs perception check slip you a bad card instead. (u/arual_x)
An island theme park of reanimated dinosaurs. The owner is a level 20 Necromancer called Hamm Johnand. (u/arual_x)
A Virtual Reality style game that allows you to battle horrible monsters over and over again without risk of injury physical. But still allows you to gain XP... (u/arual_x)
A perfect expanse of thick snowy ground. There is constantly a snowball fight going on. (u/arual_x)
A giant room full of mattresses where everyone immediately gets a wonderful massage. (u/Revanclaw-and-memes)
A room full of gold and exquisite things, from beautiful furniture to magic weapons (u/Revanclaw-and-memes)
A seemingly endless room where adventurers can drink a potion to grow wings and flit about to their hearts' delight (u/iriedashur)
An ordinary classroom containing the adventurer's childhood friends, enemies, and their most hated teacher. Upon entering the room, the adventurer discovers that they are invisible, and free to pull pranks as they wish (u/iriedashur)
A brightly colored room piled high with wrapped gifts, large and small, for the adventurers to open endlessly (u/iriedashur)
A purple and black dragon named Ace who cooks you garlic bread and cake. (u/sanorace)
A magic pair of goggles/glasses that simulate any “What if” question you pose to them. (u/lewiscann)
A magical weather room where you can ask for any weather for your pleasure (I love listening to rain) (u/lewiscann)
A room full of lounges with a floating slow burning piece of wood that warms the whole area, the piece of wood is so large you can see the flame spread through this piece of wood forever (u/lewiscann)
A room where you can bite your fingernails and they grow back instantly ( so you can bite them some more )(u/razenastie)
A room with incredibly weakened versions of powerful monsters. (u/Your_InsideMan)
A vast room on wooden sculptures, oil, and torches. (u/Your_InsideMan)
A booth that will remake your face whilst in the palace (ostensibly to make you more beautiful but it could be used for anything) (u/Paralytica)
A magic chair that gives really good back massages (u/TenNinetythree)
A playground where the slides and carousels are for adults (u/TenNinetythree)
A room where you become a giant and can destroy cities and fortresses kaiju style. (u/Paralytica)
Drug Olympics. A room with every drug imaginable to try. Leaving the room cleanses you of their effects. (u/Skitsafrit)
No Pauses. A room that has the effect of making all conversations flow perfectly. No silence stretches too long, no one mishears you, and every topic segways perfectly into the next. (u/Skitsafrit)
Deprivation Room. The room is so absolutely featureless and quiet, that you can meditate magnitudes better here than anywhere else. (u/Skitsafrit)
A games room where you play against your perfect match (u/Nesurame)
Similar to the previous, a games room where you're matched against nothing but weaker opponents (u/Nesurame)
A heist simulator where you always get away with the big diamond, chest, etc (thrill of theft) (u/reallyenjoyscarbs)
A sauna room with a central pillar. Inside the pillar is a chamber containing a magic stone which can detect the exact temperature preferences of those inside, and making each person feel said preference. (u/TgagHammerstrike)
An oval-shaped room with countless glass lotion bottles, with each smelling better than the last. If you look for a specific scent (no matter how rare), you'll certainly find it with the help of a goblin near the back of the room. (u/TgagHammerstrike)
A room that consists of A bunch of mortals so utterly jaded from years of plesure seeking that they need the hardest of drugs and the wildest of sensations to feel anything,with lesser demons feeding on their pursuit of euphoria. Think the emperors children from warhammer 40k. (u/TgagHammerstrike)
A buffet of the lids of yogurt/pudding cups to lick. (u/Hunter37594)
An olfactory room that reads your memories and replicates smells that remind you of your most joyous moments. (u/lecorbusianus)
A wildlife reserve for Druids to find new and exotic wild shapes. (u/lecorbusianus)
A room with musical instruments that you're able to master immediately. (u/lecorbusianus)
A cooking class taught by a master chef that always seems to have enough time to guide you one-on-one. (u/lecorbusianus)
An enchanter who allows you to relieve the best moments of your life over and over again. (u/lecorbusianus)
An illusionary room that brings up past experiences and let’s you make different choices to fix mistakes or win arguments. (u/The_Rhibo)
A murder simulator to allow an individual to live out the fantasy of killing that special someone. (u/Brann_The_Kid)
A library full of blackmail and secret knowledge regarding historical and political figures. A conniving, plotting character’s dream! (u/MoonlightMancer)
A room with a creature in a dark robe sitting at a table covered in maps and dice. He helps you play a strange game where you and your party make up characters that go on adventures while the robed creature acts as all of the other characters and determines new events. (u/Clickclacktheblueguy)
It's fucking great. I wake up happy, I do pretty much whatever I want during the day, I go to sleep happy. I indulge my limited passions and hobbies, I plunge down fascinating rabbit holes of knowledge, I bugger off to places for months at a time (harder with Brexit, you xenophobic malcontents), I spend time with people I want to. I feel smug. I don't have an alarm waking me up, I don't need to take any shit off anyone, I don't burn 90 mins a day on a loud bus screeching stop announcements at 90db in my ear. In the summer I sometimes pop over to the local greenery, have a pint and meal, read a book, soak up the sun. Great stuff. My phone is always on silent. It can wait. People occasionally ask me “what I do all day”. If your imagination is so limited, living in such an incredible time, with so much at your fingertips, that the question even crosses your mind, then carry on working and bitching about it, you don't know how to be happy. “Scipio used to say that he was never less idle than when he had nothing to do “ - Cicero, On Duties.
2How to get there
2.1Difficulty modes
2.1.1Easy mode: Get free university education, get a good job, buy a cheap house
Not too difficult if you were born in 1972. Easy mode is now disabled in the UK. Maybe available in foreign versions of the game, such as in Greece or Denmark.
2.1.2Medium mode: Don't have kids
I swear to god, I have been pretty lucky not to accidentally father a crotch goblin, and believe me, little Goocho often vetoed my brain. Use contraceptives. Notice how all the shit hole countries don't give women control over their reproduction. If I had foolishly crapped out a kid, I would have had to work another 10 years at least I reckon. Ugh. Borrow kids to play with them, and return when they start crying.
2.1.3Hard mode: Have kids
Look, if you are spending 100k or whatever to raise a kid I don't know what to tell you, at least you got laid eh? I hope you enjoy working like I didn't. Seriously, if you have a job you like, great stuff, things will be much easier for you. The impetus to leave it won't be so great. The point of all this is to be happy after all!
2.2Control your costs
Filling your house full of nonsense is consumerism at it's worst. I practice a kind of minimalism. So I don't own a freezer, a cooker or a dish washing machine. Guess what? They will never need repairing or replacing! But I do own an amazing OLED tv, a solid speaker system, loads of films and books. Minimalism is a whole other subject, and attracts the mentally ill who take it to extremes. Spend money on a decent mattress you fools. Subscriptions are death by a thousand cuts, and will weigh you down. However Netflix and Amazon Prime are great. Shades of grey. Screw charities, charity workers get paid salaries and you are supposed to give for free? Nope. Begging scum. “it is only the price of a coffee”, bitch please, I pay 10p a cup for my lovely coffee. Pay your taxes. Don't be a leech on society. Live in a small house. Aldi is great. If you don't get married, you can't get ruinously divorced, . Insurance is generally a scam, if you are drunkenly fucking up so regularly than you need your phone insured, sort your life out. You really need that car? Hmmm. If you are driving to the supermarket and paying for the gym, you are an idiot. Those two cancel each other out. Only unhappy people play the lottery. Buy a decent phone for £200, pay £5 a month for service. You think iFruit users will look down upon you? Comparison is the thief of joy. DIY accomplishments are mentally rewarding, great exercise and cheap – or you can throw money at a problem to make it go away, this is the point of money after all, we sell and buy time with it. Before I buy anything big, I ask myself, is this worth x days sitting in an office for? Spend your money how you like, I am not your mum. Enjoy what you have.
2.3Plan a little
Write down (don't guess) how much you spend a month over a couple of years. For investments, assume inflation cancels out general increase in non distributing equity value. This is all a rough guessing game anyway, don't pretend it isn't. I think there are two ways to look at when you can stop working:
2.3.1Cash drawdown per month until death
If you assume you are going to die around 85 (actuarial tables available online), divide your cash + private pension wealth + state pension amount will pay you until age 85 by the number of months left to live, this tells you how much you can spend a month before you die. Sounds like enough? Investment appreciation means you might have more than that.
2.3.2Cash dividends per month
You have a lumpsum of wealth. Flexible uk pension rules means you no longer need to take the annuity gamble. 4% returns a year seems conservatively doable. Can you live on that? Means you die with a load of cash. Stash it in your silk lined coffin.
2.4Play it safe, but not too safe
Assume laws and taxes will change. Don't count too much on that state pension. If the NHS falls ill itself, you might need some cash to go private. Good luck getting that hip surgery in the next 12 months post covid! If the stock market takes a 10% dump, you must still sleep soundly. Don't live too close to the edge. Assume and hope your parents will spend all their wealth on themselves, having a happy end of life in an old folks home. Points off as a human being for relying on your parent snuffing it for free money. What if your body conks out and you start shitting yourself and have to pay 4k a month to be served Dickensian gruel in a nursing home? Trust in the societal safety net? Work another 5 years just in case? Keep a cyanide pill by the bed? Sell your house I guess? I'm rolling the dice on this one. Maybe dancing in VR and these 50 degree Victorian terrace stairs will keep me fit (or kill me).
2.5Personal Story
Went to Uni, got a Computering degree, got a job I liked, autistic-ally worked at it, got paid lots of money, bought a house at 26 for 48k, parents threw in 10k to get rid of me, paid off the mortgage in 30 months. After 8 years in said job, started to dislike it, took 6 months off work. Worked another 2 years before I got made redundant, 15k for doing nothing? Yes please! Worked about half the time from age 32 to 46 as Contractor scum, in jobs I generally disliked or eventually hated. Had 2-3 years between jobs. Snatching retirement chunks from the future. I figured, why leave retirement until I am too old to enjoy it? Took around 3 months to get a new job each time, I didn't care, I loved not working! Played casino blackjack for a couple of years for ~8 hours a week, made £12k. Shuffling machines have stopped all that now, was bored of it anyway. Decided at 40 I had better get a pension, threw money at it when working. So at 46, when I walked out on the pathetic management at my last gig (FIS Birmingham, you see when you are retired, you really don't have to give a shit!), I had worked for a total of ~15 years, thoroughly enjoyed not working and was sick of working. At 47 I realised maybe I don't actually need another job? Started paying real attention to my finances. At 48, I have 110k cash & 140k pension = 250k. 4% a year dividends = 10k a year. I can live happily on that. £800 a month is enough. I spent £350 a month in December and January, had a great time. Will get a PS5 when available, boiler is bound to break eventually. It all evens out. My state pension fortells a sickly £117 per week. Meh. Forgive me for not factoring that in too much. Who knows where I will be in 20 years? Hopefully sleeping in late without an alarm clock.
Descriptions and Recommendations for the Broken Bonds refugees wanting to continue to watch Verum
Since the recent news (Best of luck to Toast and his father!) I imagine a lot of the Broken Bonds viewers who want to get into more involved in Verum has increased, so I will attempt to give a small description of a few campaigns in relation to Broken Bonds for the Broken Bonds refugees who want to branch out into new campaigns. I will not be commenting on every campaign ever but I will comment on every active one(excluding one shots or things like the red star) and a few finished ones that are related to BB:
This is the time that I would put a bit of a disclaimer for Strange Roads and the early parts of the Tops campaigns, in the early parts of these campaigns a player was revealed to have some abhorent acts that were brought to light, that player was removed from both Strange Roads and Tops campaigns, I will not be mentioning this another time but it is a disclaimer I thought was worth mentioning, but I urge you to not be dettered from these amazing stories cause of one bad apple and I would prefer if the matter was not mentioned again in this thread.
Gamblers Delight (11 episodes , 1 bookkeeping episode) -> Shadow of Tyre (23 episodes, currently ongoing):
@CrikMaster aka Criken as Moe Kowbull
@Strippin aka Strippin as Ahst
@woops aka Woops as Raost Tredder
@TheNo1Alex aka TheNo1Alex as Toot
@goldentot aka Tate as Eustace
This is the quintessential lore campaign, the Gamblers is the campaign with the fastest roadmap to get people kept up with the current lore and currently running events while also providing proper context and buildup, because this is the group that most likely uncovered that lore to begin with. The players themselves follow the name of the campaign to a fault, they are gamblers. If you liked E'ar hugging the maggot get ready for a whole 40+ sessions of that with these misfit pirates and their constant gambling of the world's fate. Shadow of Tyre has given to the world the fastest way of aquiring lore aptly naming the group the "Speedrunners of Tyre" for constanly completing everything quickly through gambles. The group dynamic is very cheery and jumps on almost any oportunity to do something great. I would recommend this campaign to almost everyone who is interested in the lore of Verum and likes people doing heroic things. The easiest way to describe them in one sentence is "Take a chance. Roll the Dice. Let it be a Gambler's Delight".
Gailen's Gate(39 Episodes) -> Soul of Tyre(21 episodes, currently ongoing):
@shaken_im aka Sean as Braktor Ironbellows
@surefour aka Surefour as Belanovan
@ronniefilyaw aka WhompRonnie as Ozzie
@invadercristi aka Miss Universe as Hackne Silvermask
@SterLovesFood aka Ster as Gruff
This campaign starts out as a city builder establishing a new city in the continent of Kalkatesh but their fate is rewritten as they follow their destiny to the Arcane Labyrinth to find the Soul of Tyre. The players are all VERY experienced both in terms of roleplay and battle mechanics, they have a past Seven from 7years7days as a player and that plays a lot to the dynamic of the group and the way they make decisions. This is a group that is very careful with the decisions they make and are very careful. It provides a unique way to experience the world since most of the time people are new to Verum and the way the universe works. If you want a campaign filled with lore and tense decisions focusing a lot on the green side of the pantheon of Verum and of course takes a very important role in the current storyline due to them being in the Arcane Labyrinth then Soul of Tyre is for you. Due to the tense nature of their enviroment and their decision making the campaign may sometimes result in characters arguing with each other for a lot of time, however when push comes to shove SoT always delivers with excellent RP, incredible tactics and overall smart decision making. This is the line that I think describes Soul of Tyre the best: "Because you could be right, our spark is fading. But the Seven will not die forgotten. I'm little more than a candle in a sea of darkness now, but before you snuff me out I will start a luminous fire. And now, you're going to witness me, THIS IS MY POWER TOO! And I'm going to show you EXACTLY WHAT THIS SOUL CAN DO"
Deals in the Dark(14 Episodes) -> Maw of Abbaddon(7 Episodes) -> Duality of Dragons(6 Episodes) -> Meaning of Madness(7 Episodes) -> Heart of Tyre(21 Episodes, currently ongoing):
[REDACTED] aka [REDACTED] as [REDACTED]
@NaomiOop aka Naomi as Neve
@scottjund aka Scott Jund as "Rivitah or whatever the fuck name he has this week"
@RussMoney aka Russmoney as Madd Morc
@AMGSheena aka AMGSheena as Argh'xl Roz
@SummersSalt aka Summer as Seren
@msf_actual aka Snake as Ives Brightburn
The late night crew, the Tops, the lords of Abbadon. They go by a lot of names and titles but if there's one campaign that adheres to the sentence "Hope is not so easily extinguished" it is the Tops. I'm gonna be blund. Nothing good ever happens to the Heart of Tyre, they constantly face worse shit and worse shit every week. Yet, every single week they overcome it , they strive forward no matter the challenge and the opposition. Whether it be through a lucky dice roll, fate or impressive stratergies , the Tops are the group that had me waking up my wife at 4am from me screaming "TOPS TOPS TOPS TOPS". Every single one of them having heroic moments all the time no matter the challenge. If you want the heroes of Verum, no matter their allegiance , no matter their alignment, for me Tops are the heroes Verum has. In terms of what the campaign entails , it goes from a faction building campaign into the whole storyline of the Arcane Labyrinth with a heavy emphasis on horror elements like Silent Hills and Resident Evil. If I could describe the group dynamic in one sentence is "For the planet"
Shattered Crowns Season 1-3:
Season 1: 14 Episodes
Season 2: 14 Episodes
Season 3: 6 Episodes
@MOONMOON_OW aka MoonMoon as Scrumpo
@AdmiralBahroo aka AdmiralBahroo as Big Tree
@Octopimp aka Octopimp as Huckleberry
@JoeZieja aka Joe Zieja as Ikkar
@SterLovesFood aka Ster as Guy
The scattered clowns, a chaotic group, a lovable group, OH GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING ON VIOLET FIRE AND WHY ARE WE IN SPACE AGHHH!!!. The group that unleashed the Cacophonic Collective upon Broken Bonds, the group that started a TON of shit with the fireball incident. This is one of the if not the most unique and different campaign Arcadum has run on stream, ESPECIALLY after season 2, there's huge lore payoffs, incredible fights, the conclusion and start of multiple campaign expanding arcs and storyline in this grand adventure, spam your libidos and follow the clowns in their quest to save the universe.
A Tale of Two Towers(18 Episodes) -> Secrets in the Stone(11 Episodes):
@Rhabby_V aka Rhabby V as Claw
@DattosDestiny aka Datto as Dusty
@BlessiousPlays aka Blessious as Elwood
@Pterodactylsftw aka Pterodactylstfw as Gorrul
@travel_danielle aka Danielle as Tirsis
@Tiff_Tiefling aka Silvelle/Tiff as Ulm
A campaign that gets derailed by A LOT and very often. They are in the middle of some of the most important events in the current storyline and hold the other piece of Zorro. One of the players is Arcadum's wife, a previous Seven and the actoplayer for the Astral Traveler, they have one of the best note takers as players who ended ascending his character to be a translator. If you're interested in the lore of Verum Secrets in the Stones is a must watch.
Death and Debts(11 episodes) -> Steel and Silence(2 Episodes, currently ongoing)
@ProjektMelody aka ProjektMelody as Terryn
@MomoMischief aka Momo as Vaeri
@Bunny_Gif aka Bunny_gif as Madeleine
@zentreya aka Zentreya as Zara
@Iron_mouse aka IronMouse as Umi
@_Silvervale aka Silvervale as Revlis
Chaotic Horny. 2 word describe this group. These girls have a blast playing DnD and have become entangled in the main storyline as of their second campaign. If you want to feel nauseated from all the laughter and ways they find to break Arcadum then I recommend this campaign wholeheartly. DaD and now SaS were my main campaigns that I found solace in when things were going horribly wrong for the Tyre groups and all I could feel for 2 weeks was pure suffering. This is the most horny group you'll find in Verum while also having sprinkles of important lore. 3 words describe this grouip the best: "Bag of Nipples"
The Strange Roads(17 Episodes):
[REDACTED] aka [REDACTED] as [REDACTED]
@JesseCox aka Jesse Cox as Arcidamus
@Gallan aka Bikeman as Gallan Troth
@Timmac_ aka Timmac as Koordrin
@dexbonus aka Dodger as Zackarius
@Kelli_Siren aka Kelli as Mirage
A campaign that was deeply interlinked with Broken Bonds, if you liked the Boys from the Valloween fight then this is where they originate from and Nox also appears in it having one of her most epic fights in Verum yet. A campaign of a group of adventures travelling from one end of Kalkatesh to the other. Along the road they encounter a lot of different storylines and obstacles they have to take care of, if you care abou Kalkatesh's multitude of different ways of living then this is a great campaign as it provides an example of a lot of it's cities cultures in one packed campaign. The group dynamic is heavily RP, the players are almost always in character. The characters from this campaign make multiple cameos in other campaigns a lot of the time , also featuring a Violet Eye and a lot of lore on the patreons of Verum and their nature.
The Tearing Veil (13 Episodes, currently ongoing):
@sodapoppintv aka Sodapoppin as Flamewrath
@KingVigors aka Vigors as Vim
@DevinNash aka DevinNash as Wisp
@surefour aka Surefour as Nidhogg
@MOONMOON_OW aka MoonMoon as Angorn
@roflgatorOW aka Roflgator as Raber
The Unwise 6. A evil campaign focusing on a group of misfits following the commands of the Mad God Olokenhai. This is heavily chaotic group focused on doing evil acts to help the heroes of Kalkatesh against the ongoing plot in Orde. If you are into Town RP, political assasination, hobo killing, sneaking around and spy movies I would heavily recommend the Tearing Veil. The constant fear of their enviroment while combined with the unpredictable nature of some characters in the group makes a significant impact in the dynamic of this group with lots of yelling(in character , the players don't actually dislike each other, they're all friends). This campaign is marked with this quote "My only regret was not killing more of them!".
The Herald's Call (7 Episodes, currently ongoing):
@jordanfisher aka Jordan Fisher as Riku
@shroud aka Shroud as Midas
@bnans aka bnans as Zada
@alexiaraye aka Alexia Raye as Azylea
@ShannonZKiller aka Shannon as Arienne Okash'd
@Sacriel aka Sacriel as Archael Sunspear
The Wise 6. The other side of the Orde struggle. This is the pollar opposite of the Tearing Veil group having a bunch of careful smart players that are very considerate in their decisionmaking akin to Heart of Tyre and Soul of Tyre. While being new to DnD they play very smartly and rp to a great level. I have nothing but good news to say about the Herald's Call, the only problem I've had with the campaign was a lore reveal for this campaign being in my opinion setup too early in comparison to the payoff of the other campaigns so I would not recommend watching this before catching up if you're currently watching any of the longer campaigns as this campaign and Weal and Woe are very frontloaded lore wise and reveals do not get built up as the players have to be caught up with the current events.
Weal and Woe (7 Episodes, currently ongoing):
@feliciaday aka Felicia Day as Mara
@Jae_Day6 aka Jae Park as Lily Pichu
@justkeshi aka Casey Luong as Laius
@poetristephanie aka Stephanie Poetri as Meni
@clintonkane aka Clinton Kane as Barbie
Newcomers to Verum with experienced DnD player Felicia freaking Day to play in what many of us call the "K-pop" group. I'm gonna be real, this campaign feels very homely to me, the variant mic quality , the dificulty to understand technology and the very different characters being in the same part feels distinctly like my games of DnD. This campaign is very frontloaded with lore so I would recommend waiting on catching up to the longer campaigns before tackling this, it has in my opinion some of the best maps Nurp has ever made and utilises maptools to a new extent of what Arcadum usually does. If you've watched the latest BB episode that dude Taladon, is who gives the Weal and Woe party commands and drives their cause, the main aesthetic for this group being movable objects and robots it feels distinctly different from a lot of other Verum campaigns as it focuses on the Folly of Maltos.
The Silent Knights(14 Episodes):
@ObliviousVR aka Oblivious as Alyla Aurora
@InvaderCristi aka Miss Universe as Jairx
@MNaiade aka Mara Naiade as Rochelle
@StarStainStuff aka Starstainstuff as Dr. Essler
@AH_Faelyix aka Faelyix as Rainbow After Rain
@__Mimiika aka Mimika as Nox N'varja "Nox" Ilven
Nox's original campaign, it focuses on the Alice storyline and the creation of the before-mentioned silent knights faction as in the protectors of the dream realm. It originally featured a violet eye that was later retconned as the player couldn't play due to scheduling issues. Heavy lore campaign obviously focusing on the Dream , it's function, it's history, it's creation and it's protection.
Wonders Within (11 Episodes):
@woops aka Woops as Inuchiyo
@sh1nym aka Sh1ny as Clyde
@Drekwiz aka Drekwiz as Derk
@_AnubisX aka Anubis as Wokou Kaizoku
This is a HEAVY lore campaign before this whole violet shit started happening and is very deeply relevant to the event's right now as much of the lore unpacked in this campaign has become increasingly relevant. Main theme for this campaign is the discovery and plundering of the great city Easmere and reestablishing it as a nation of Kalkatesh.
Ambitions of Avarice:
The second hardest boss Arcadum has ever run on stream , the number 1 still going on, these characters are all max level living world characters with insane items.
The Dilating One:
GLORY FUCKING SUFFER This is the hardest boss Arcadum has ever run on stream and we're currently fighting it.
The Traitor's Trial:
If you're not fully caught up with the Tyre campaigns do not touch this. If you are, you know what this is.
'Dice Shooter' from the game provider Holland Power Gaming is a game with 25 betways. Game Dice Shooter is developed on the basis of technology Flash.... The dice games in the list here, all revolve around gambling with stakes.Remember, you don't have to gamble with hard cash, you could use matchsticks, chocolates or counters and just enjoy rolling the dice. Playing for money is more suited to adults, so the gambling and casino dice games list may appeal more to the more mature players than children's dice games. The dice is an interesting game. Unlike the traditional dice which has only 6 possible outcomes, this one involves a “dice” that can lend on numbers between 1 and 100. Your goal is to choose a number (usually between 2 and 98), and to bet on whether the roll of dice would be higher or lower than what you chose. This post includes several dice games along with instructions for how to gamble on them. I’ll start with craps because it is the most popular and well-known gambling dice game. Also, just to be clear, I’m only writing about games played with standard 6-sided dice—the kind that are shaped like cubes. Hot Roll Dice US 2021⭐️ Top Hot Roll Dice casino slots The best Hot Roll Dice online casino slots in the US only here!👉 Rolling the dice - gambling for money is not the only game in town John Malouff; Latest News. Gambling is a huge business. Think of scratch cards, horse and dog races, casinos, online sports ... Klondike is a gambling dice game that was popular in frontier America. The game is played with 5 dice that are 6-sided and is like poker dice. The objective in Klondike is to roll a better hand or combination than the banker to win. Forms of dice have been popular in many cultures, with cubical, 6-sided dice having been found in China around 600 B.C. Originally used for divination, dice were soon used for various games, including games of chance. While the best known game of chance with dice may be craps, in both its casino and street forms, other gambling games that use a pair of dice include Hazard, ‘’Cho-Han ... 2 six-sided dice, 2 players: each roll both dice and the highest sum wins. This medieval gambling game of Highest Points was simple and straightforward – maybe too simple, since a game of chance should not be a game of boredom. People tended to play Highest Points less often than either Hazard or Passe-dix. To broaden your dice gambling horizon and keep your night at the table nice and easy, here are 5 easy dice gambling games you should know about. 1 – Chuck-a-luck. Chuck-a-luck is played in many smaller casinos. It’s simple and entertaining because of how flashy the game can be. The game is played using a giant spinning hourglass that holds ...
Playing 10 the Classic Gambling Dice Game - YouTube
we are manufacture of casino machine ,roulette machine, fishing machine,slot machine ,jackpot game machine with best price and quality. Quickly going through the gambling dice game called Farkle in Kingdom Come Deliverance, where you get the chance to double your investment! So if you want a ... R G FASHIONS-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-Please watch: "Designer #kurtis On heavy #Discount now Rakhi Sale Starts" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-JO35tbcJ0-~-~~-~~~-... Playing 10 the Classic Gambling Dice Game. Part of the series: Rules for Dice Games. Learn how to play ten (10), a classic dice game supposedly played by the... The Dice Game: Gambling With Your Company Training gameThe purpose of The Dice Game - Gambling with your Company is to simply and easily illustrate for your ... Dominator explains what the Casinos do with dice and what dice you should practice with Bầu cua tôm cá Remix by P's & Q'sVideo made by Sokk Learning to play a dice game in Taiwan on the New Year. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
