Articles tagged with: RPG

RPGs

Sadly, work absorbed most of the RPG group's time and energy, so we've decided to reboot the sessions after Xmas. So many months without playing, we don't even remember where we were anyway...

Videogames - Finished

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Remastered

I finished a 54 hours playthrough, maxing out many of the guilds. Sadly I couldn't finish all of them, nor the Shivering Isles content.

There are many game-breaking bugs, including one that begins to manifest after 30h or so of gametime, and keeps getting worse: Upon changing area (entering a building or cave, fast-travelling, and the like), the game might consistently crash. At first, tweaking some graphics settings fixed it, but something is terribly wrong with the new 3D engine, because now there is no way to progress.

It is a trully amazing game, and the remaster is quite beautiful, but the issues really get in the way.

Videogames - Ongoing

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

I haven't advanced too much. I'm still on the new playthrough, with ~45 shrines completed and not yet all the towers, so plenty of game ahead. I'm playing it slowly, enjoying again every bit of the fantastic world.

Starfield

I'm starting to play it more seriously as of late. That's why I recently created a list of my favourite mods for the game. It is giving me vibes of a flawed gem: sometimes it is incredibly immersive, beautiful and vast, like the other day when I discovered that I can spend hours decorating "my home" (not counting the ship building system), or the myriad of optional quests. But other times, it looks like a mess of half-backed features, like the space jump (so many animations to, in the end, a menu-based instant travel system) or the vehicles (such terrible controls...).

Still, I think that the game is better than the critics say. It was simply over-hyped and then did not live up to the promise, but all the systems from previous Elder Scrolls and Fallouts are there: tons of side-quests, hiden details, elaborate mechanics and sub-systems, crafting, a decent skill tree... and gorgeous science fiction visuals, way ahead than No Man's Sky or Mass Effect (the remaster). Not that graphics drive me, but at times, it looks like a modern sci-fi movie.

Crafts

During Christmas holidays, I assembled a few wooden crafts for my partner.

I built another Rowood flower:

And a bonsai:

And even a tree house (no photos yet, so using one from Rolife's website):

The tree house was a decent challenge, with hundreds of pieces, but it looks stunning and it is full of tiny details.

I also forgot to post a picture of something that I've had since a while, and that sadly now is quite hard to get, because it is so cool. Unnofficial Zelda brickheadz figures!

There were two sets, and I only picked Link's. While the pieces are clearly a LEGO copy of lesser quality (e.g. the hand has a less firm grip of items), for displaying the figures and not playing with them, does the job perfectly. I wish LEGO copied the idea and releasd official brickheadz sets...

Publication date: 2026-01-11

Tags: Crafts Elder Scrolls: Oblivion LEGO RPG Starfield Videogames Zelda

Introduction

The first time that I play a videogame, I prefer the vanilla experience. However, at times some design decisions might not sit well with the players, or there might be some subtle bugs, or half-baked features. Starfield leans towards the first category: When you are play from a PC, certain aspects feel quite annoying. So, here is my small list of mods and tweaks that I am, at the time of writing this post, using on my first playthrought of the game.

Installation Instructions

Read carefully the instructions for each mod. Also, the ones I use do not disable achievements, but others might do!

There are two main directories files usually go:

• Documents\My Games\Starfield
• Your Steam game install directory: In Steam, e.g. in your Library, right click on the game ⇾ "Manage" ⇾ "Browse Local Files"

Mod Recommendations

• BetterHUD: A more minimalistic main in-game HUD.
• Cleanfield: De-clutter the main menu.
• EXE - Effect Textures Enhanced: Vastly improved effects, from particles to blood and explosions.
• NaturaLUTs: I use the enhanced preset. This is a must have.
• StarUI Inventory: Another must have, because the default inventory UI was clearly designed for consoles, not PC.

Publication date: 2026-01-08

Tags: RPG Science-Fiction Starfield Tools Videogames

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...

Publication date: 2025-04-25

Tags: Elder Scrolls: Morrowind RPG Tools Videogames

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).

Publication date: 2024-10-06

Tags: DnD Old-School 0ed RPG Videogames

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.

Publication date: 2021-05-01

Tags: Boardgames RPG Tools Videogames