Recent content by Kurotowa

I mean, that's totally fair. Choosing between dated bits that need replacing and core traits that need preserving is an artistic decision, and those are always subjective. There's never going to be a unanimous consensus on it. All you can do is put it in the hands of talented artists and hope...

Yeah, I think it's a delicate balance that has to be struck. Do too little to update an old property, and it can feel dated and make you question why you don't just stick to the original. Change too much, or spend too much time apologizing for old flaws, and it can feel like a stranger trying to...

Coming out of the theater from TLJ, my problem was that it was a decent movie by itself but a rather bad Star Wars movie. It was too interested in deconstructing the tropes of the genre, and that's a job for outsiders and spinoffs. Not the flagship brand. Flagships. if they do indulge in a...

There's a good segment of "fans" who feel they've staked an ownership claim on the thing they're fans on. Which then gives them a right to gatekeep new fans who aren't appreciating it the right way, and to proclaim that new official additions aren't worthy because they deviate from the headcanon...

The vibe I often get is that a lot of people feel pressure to conform to the latest books. Maybe they're not the DM making that call, maybe the rest of the group doesn't share their opinions, maybe they don't have a stable group and aren't good at selling their ideas to whatever floaters are...

In an abstract sense, language is a game of interpretation. We can't telepathically beam concepts directly into other people's minds. We have to encode our intent into language which is then deciphered into meaning again at the other end, and a certain amount of imprecision and data loss is...

The older I get, the more often I tag things as the "least bad solution". It's imperfect, it has obvious downsides, but it's still better than the available alternatives. And while it's easy to point at the flaws, it's hard to offer up a better idea. That's where I feel we are with this. Early...

There's two hurdles with that. One is UA releases, and the other is internet leaks. The UA testing process means that even when we don't know exactly what books are coming, we often have a really good idea. See: Apocalyptic Subclasses and Dark Sun. So people are going to make lists and set...

Small clarification. Fey Wandered gets bonus damage once per turn per target. If you hit two different creatures, you get +1d4 against each. That's why it's a smaller die size than other Ranger subclasses get, when their bonus is hard capped at once per turn at all. It's a niche thing, but it's...

The weakness of Savage Attacker is that it doesn't scale with multiple attacks. But if you only have one attack, that's not a downside. So yeah, it's not the strongest, but it sure feels good in play.

Yeah, it feels like Armorer is paying a damage tax for getting Plate armor. Which I don't feel is warranted in all cases. Just hypothetically, if it were me and I were trying to make Armorer better? I'd make it so they could swap Armor Model as a Bonus Action, rather than only after a Rest. If...

Here's what I'm currently playing: Human Artillerist Artificer at 6th level that grabbed Savage Attacker. Primary weapon is a Musket fired with True Strike, which does 1d12+1d8+1d6+5 damage with an effective +2 damage from Savage Attacker. Then I've got the Eldritch Cannon doing 2d8 and the...

The thing is that "video game RPG" is a big tent. If you're playing a traditional RPG like Baldur's Gate or Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect, you're expecting to design your character from the ground up. Their physical appearance, their class, their dialog choices, everything. But there's also an...

Some things never go out of style. For every person who ages out of it, a new one ages in. And an edgy goth girl warlock? Voiced by Tricia Helfer? That has potential. Mind you, potential can be squandered. I have a whole mental list of "Series with great concept pitches that amounted to...

Past performance doesn't always shackle future achievement. More experience, more time, more budget... game studios can definitely outdo prior works. But still, after Dark Alliance this is absolutely going on my "Wait for the reviews" list. No pre-orders here.