T w e n t y S i d e d
From The Archives:
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
Hardware Review
So what happens when a SOFTWARE engineer tries to review hardware? This. This happens.
The Gameplay is the Story
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
Crysis 2
Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?
Mass Effect Retrospective
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
Something that strikes me as we reread these comics is how badly the players want to get invested in the story and take it seriously, and how determined the DM is to sidemine them so he can play out his grandiose epic.
Like, come on, they keep giving him easy wins and he keeps throwing them away!
It’s the fault of an inflexible DM. Some railroading is necessary to keep a campaign on track or to have the players go on planned “sidequests” or personal quests but a good DM has to accept there are going to be times when that written page or two of dialogue and events has to be essentially binned because the players made a reasonable decision or solution that bypasses or skips it. It was long established the players realized they were going to play a campaign of the DM’s fanfic. Part of what makes this comic so great is it makes fun of the players and the DM and yet anyone that has ever been in a tabletop rpg campaign almost certainly can relate in one way or the other to everyone involved.
This is part of why I never clicked with Chainmail Bikini’s “railroading” GM. At no point did any of the players seem interested in anything other than ignoring Casey’s story. He went along with all of their stupid decisions, he was just bad at adapting to them. Unlike DMotR, at no point did Casey have an annoying GMPC, or do things that invalidated their choices.
I can’t say for certain that it was intentional, but it took me quite a while to get the reference of “Have it your way, King”, which was the long time slogan of Burger King …