Articles tagged with: RPG

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was my first real interaction with the saga. I saw Daggerfall but never played it. And in the case of Morrowind, I don't even remember if I finished even the lengthy tutorial, as you couldn't save until after completing it.

Anyway, advancing to the present (April 2025), I picked the game on a sale, and decided to see if I could improve its visuals and fix some bugs and annoyances. I was successful, so I want to document here what works for me (also for future reference).

• Morrowind Code Patch: Lots of fixes and QoL changes.
• Morrowind Graphics Extender XE (MGE XE): Improves almost everything, but specially the water and illumination will look amazing.
• Morrowind Enhanced Textures: Upscaled textures, but respecting the originals. Combined with MGE XE, looks as good as it can!
• How to fix the glitchy music bug: I faced this issue. It has an easy solution, but you will be surprised about how to solve it 😅
• How to save even at the start of the game: Open the console (~ key), type set CharGenState to -1 and press ENTER. This marks you as having finished creating the character, and finally shows the Save option in the main menu.
• Easier thievery: Open the console (~ key), type tfh and press ENTER. It displays ownership information of all items, so you can know if what you are going to pick is owned or not.

There are many cool mods, and even instaling the Code Patch alone will give you the option of activating some tiny quality of life tweaks. I like to keep the experience as near the "vanilla" one as possible, so for now I'm sticking with mostly fixes and graphical updates.

As an extra for the future, two insanely big mods are currently being developed as of 2025 (and they even share some resources!):

• Tamriel Rebuilt
• Project Tamriel

They are still halfway there, but being so vast, it seems that you can already explore and experience a lot of content. Maybe for the future, when I finish the main game and original expansions...

Posted on 2025-04-25

RPGs

Old-School Essentials

For the first time in probably half a decade, I have news on this front!

Thanks to some work colleagues, we have just begun playing Old-School Essentials, a reinvention of the original Dungeons & Dragons rules, brought from the dead to take dungeon crawling adventures back to the old days of storytelling and exploration, instead of all being so driven by rules, and tiles (and miniatures).

It is called "0ed" and, while I have only read the basic free rules so far, I can clearly see why. They try very strongly replicate the old first edition of D&D/DnD, making everything quite simple and approachable to insist and focus a lot on the "this is an adventure, improvise!" take.

But damn, it is also very challenging! Level 1 characters are so fragile; my lawful cleric almost died on our first encounter... And I don't even have any spells other than "turn undead"!

But what I'm most happy about is the fact that after so long, I'm back into some roleplaying. We're doing it online, so it is a new and different experience, but I'd rather meet virtually than not meet at all!

Videogames - Finished

XCom: Enemy Unknown

I got a brand new iPad, and when I saw that the game is available there (expansion included), couldn't resist. I finished a full ironman mode walkthrough, with many augmented soldiers but no MEC.

Videogames - Ongoing

Zelda(s)

I decided to do another run of both Breath of the Wild, and then Tears of the Kingdom, and I began, but Echoes of Wisdom just came out! So it really should be in the postponed section, but as I switched a Zelda game with another Zelda game, it's kind of even.

Dwarf Fortress

Really not advanced much, the game is as good as deep and complex, so I have it kind of on hold until I have enough time to properly immerse on its mechanics. Still, by far the best and most complete game of its kind.

KeeperRL

I decided to buy this roguelite mix of Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper, and so far so good. While not as deep as DF, it is also much easier to begin playing, and I like the dual real-time-for-building and turn-based-for-fighting approach.

I must confess that the Dwarf Fortress-like graphics and building/crafting were what sold me in the first place. It is also quite cool that it features multiple game mode variants: being a knight, an adventurer, a dungeon keeper but themed to a necromancer... Looks like highly replayable.

Ancient Domains of Mystery

I'm slowly trying to play more old-school kind of roguelites, but the user interfaces are often really complex. I don't mind the ASCII graphics, but relying more on keyboard shortcuts than on menus requires some investment. ADOM provides a nice graphical UI and mouse support over (most of) its game, and has very good critics, so I also began playing it.

So far I merely finished the tutorial and some initial quests, but looks very promising.

XCom 2

After playing again the first one, I am eager for more turn-based stragegy, so I just began a new game. Of course in ironman mode, I love the thrill of not being able to go back after any mistake or bad luck.

Videogames - Postponed / Discarded

Diablo 4

I got my necromancer to level 100, played a bit more, but got tired. The expansion just came out, but they redesigned the crafting and levelling for the 4th or 5th time, so I'm going to pass for now. When they make up their minds and stop to properly think what and how they want the game progression to be, then I'll consider coming back.

Also, the expansion is way overpriced for the small chunk of new stuff it brings, so I'll wait for some sale if I decide to play the game again.

Diablo 2: Resurrected

After dismissing Diablo 4, I wanted more, so switched to D2R. I got my necromancer there to level 73, just after unlocking the Hell difficulty level. But I need to grind quite a bit for better equipment and runes, as even the starting enemies are such a challenge.

Parked the game for now, but I'll probably come back in the future.

Oxygen Not Included

While not an RPG per-se, it is one of those base-building games in which the characters and the world feels so alive that I'm treating it almost as if it were one. An adventure of a group of interstellar travellers that got stuck in an alien planet, and now struggle to build a habitable underground base? station? city maybe?

I think I am in the middle stages of the game, where you can sustain your colony almost without issues, and I have plenty of resources and they deplete slowly; I can recycle water, I generate some food, and I generate some oxygen and recycle/clean more. It is never a long-term sustainable scenario, but I'm happy to have learned the ropes of the game without having to sacrifice any colony and start over again.

Let's see if I manage to finish it (I think you can build a rocket and fly away from the planet).

Posted on 2024-10-06

Lately I'm a bit bored of just playing games, I miss a bit doing something more creative. I also miss my miniatures. So when I learned about a new game, Talespire, that allowed you to setup and play "boardgame" scenarios as if you had real painted miniatures (with amazing graphics), I wanted to give it a try.

I learned about the game by a blog post, once it was already available at Steam (it's in Early Access), but researching for this post I found that it comes from a successful Kickstarter. Both sources are a good starting point, but check the Steam early access trailer to see why I fell in love with it:

You easily add tiles, walls, props (furniture, decoration) and entities (human-controllable miniatures, NPCs and monsters), save it (everything works online), and then can play, alone or with friends (no AI, though), in a turn-based fashion. It struck me both as how simple it appeared, and really is, you decide how far you want to go adding detail. But the visuals are incredible, it really looks as if you had real high-quality painted miniatures. The die roll realistically, music and sound effects help immerse, and special effects and "atmospheric controls" (time of day, weather, and other visual and lighting conditions) allow to create the perfect setting no matter if you are exploring dark sewers, a dungeon or a mountain on a sunny day.

I encourage anyone interested to read the terminology guide and the player's guide to properly understand what you can (and can't) do. For example, the combat system is as good as many normal computer RPGs, with 4 stats, combat resolution, initiative-based turns and other tweaks, but it is not Dungeons & Dragons. I find it a great balance between a not-totally-freeform game engine (like Vassal) and Baldur's Gate.

Oh, and remember what I mentioned before about the Kickstarter campaign? You should check it out as it hints of things to come later, like character editing (at minimum changing the colors), or a Cyberpunk/sci-fi setting which looks as amazing as the main medieval one (and exactly what I thought, "I'd love to have a Cyberpunk 2020 equivalent!").

This is an example screenshot I took exploring an amazing castle uphill I downloaded from the community:

This was my first experiment, a small tavern made in a few minutes just after finishing the (in-game) tutorials:

And my last screenshot is a work in progress of a bigger experiment, a HeroQuest board. Need to learn to play with tile sizes to see if I can keep corridors same size as the original, while having cool walls and room dispositions, but still I think end up quite similar:

Of course the game is meant to be played with other people, but for now, to me it is a great way to relax assembling maps. I can pick any map from an adventure, or even cool randomly generated maps. Having your friends purchase the game to be able to play the campaigns can be a handicap, but the game is cheap, way less than any boardgame these days.

Before I finish, I wanted to also share a few great resources for inspiration and maps:

• Tales Tavern: Official website, acting both as a hub of player-created content, news, and tutorials (see next point)
• Tales Tavern Training Grounds: An official list of resources
• TaleSpire reddit: All things related with the game, from news to newest creations by people.

Posted on 2021-05-01

When I backed Shadowrun Returns at Kickstarter nearing a year ago I did it based on pure faith. SR was a game I read about when I was young but never had the chance to play. I now have the third edition book + companion so at least I can read and learn specific rules, but in general I love the aesthetics of this futuristic fantasy world and was curious about how the computer videogame might result.

Well, the first screens and "alpha gameplay" footage is here, and I can't be happier.

In the video we see conversation options, skill points assignment, combat and exploration modes (the first turn-based, the second realtime). It also has the "old school CRPGs" isometric view, but with hi-res graphics and what looks to be a simple but powerful user interface.

And best of all, the level editor is going to come with the PC version!

I love how the whole game is being done: open and transparent communication with backers, frequent updates, early screenshots and even videos, and no desire to get greedy; As they already have quite some money, even non-backers will get a nice RPG that will feature near-endless hours of fun due to the editor.

Posted on 2013-03-09

CD Projekt RED, creators of The Witcher videogames (quite good RPGs that respect all the lore of the books) have just released a small trailer of their next game, Cyberpunk 2077 (+ wikipedia link, not much info yet, though).

From the trailer description:

Welcome to the year 2077.

The teaser shows how the Psycho Squad might acquire a new member.

The Psycho Squad specializes in combating "psychos" -- individuals who overuse implants and substances that boost or otherwise alter the human body.

There comes a point when they overdose on these innovations, and their bodies start to rebel against their biological body parts as well as all things organic around them. Simply put, they start killing people, who they now derisively call "meatbags."

When a psycho goes on the rampage, strange things can happen. There's carnage, and the psycho might be taken down by regular police, but they're not always able to get the job done.

When things spin out of control, they call in MAX-TAC (Maximum Force Tactical Division), popularly called the Psycho Squad.

And the cool trailer:

I can't wait for the game, Cyberpunk 2020 was my first approach to the futuristic cyborg setting (along with Blade Runner).

I actually have some miniatures painted from long long ago, a dozen characters depicting from gang members and private security mercs to policemen, hackers and executives:

Update: The teaser making of. Awesome level of detail...

Posted on 2013-01-11