Rich Stokes

Iced ICE, baby?

I think those are the closest things to "grand campaigns" they published back then? It's worth considering though that in a lot of ways, the entire setting and game line was a grand campaign because there were constant metaplot events going on through every book all the time.

And the Transylvania Chronicles. Another 4 part starts-in-the-medieval-era campaign. Haven't read that either but iirc something about a demon or dragon trapped inside a mountain I think?

Then there was (I think) a 4 part campaign called The Giovanni Chronicles which starts out in the medieval era and runs through to the millennium. I haven't read or played it, can't speak to its quality. It was published under the Black Dog Ultra Edgelord imprint though.

I think there was this idea that tying all the game lines together in an Avengers/MCU style crossover would be cool, but unfortunately it wasn't and culminated in a (pretty terrible )adventure called Chaos Factor which is probably the least fun I've personally ever had playing RPGs.

There are a handful.

Probably the earliest was a (pretty terrible) set of linked adventures across all 3 of the early game lines where a (pretty terrible) villain called Samuel Haight did some (pretty terrible) stuff to become a werewolf vampire mage.

I know nothing I say can or will stop you.

I realised trying this was futile a couple of years ago when I moved to a substantially bigger house, donated about a 3rd of my RPG collection and STILL couldn't get everything into a single room.

I'm doomed, I tell you, DOOMED!

Kvetching online about Steam console specs from vocal PC Master Race types has really highlighted the fact that some people like playing videogames while some people like spending a lot of money so they can cock wave about meaningless benchmark numbers, and that these are two separate hobbies.

TM is already one of my favourite games of all time, so yeah. I need to play this.

Man, I REALLY have to play Age of Innovation.

100% cheating because EVERYTHING is better when you add plastic dinosaurs.

IMO Steam Deck has done wonders for proper controller support in PC games. Publishers and Devs have hugely improved since it launched.

Yeah, I think it'll be solid. Probably pick one up if they're realistic about the price, but lack of trigger stops (did I mention how much I love those? I think I mentioned it 🤣) means I'll use something else when I don't need the touchpads.

I have the original and I don't think it's bad. I want to like it much more than I do but the build feels horrible and cheap and the use of AA batteries is bad (but forgivable for its age).
Kind of a weird thing I use sometimes rather than a daily driver and I think 2.0 is going to be that too.

Sony flat out don't want anyone making 3rd party PS controllers, so the market just isn't there. That symmetric analogue format doesn't get much love, which is a shame.
Depending on price the Steam Controller 2.0 might end up being something I use for some games.

If that's you then it'd be a terrible controller for you! But a lot of people love them.
The diversity in the market is great.

But it's all pretty subjective, if you value different things and your priorities aren't the same as mine then you're going to be looking for different things.
Hand shape is a huge variable. Lots of people finding the 8bitdo Ultimate uncomfortable because it's slightly smaller than standard.

I'm absolutely ruined by these new controllers. I just can't imagine not having trigger stops for the 95% of the time I'm not playing something which requires analogue triggers.
I was happy with my dualsense until I got the Vader 4. Not used it since though.

I'll honestly trade that for better hardware.
TMR analogue sticks to avoid drift, microswitch face buttons, TMR triggers with trigger stops for 90% of games, extra programmable back buttons and tension adjustment on the analogue sticks.
That's what the Vader 4 was offering last year for £40.

Apparently I've arranged to see a Nirvana covers band tonight, but one with an Elvis impersonator as a front man.

That definitely sounds like something I'd want to see.

Bonus is it turns out the support is called Nic Cage Against The Machine.

www.elvana.co.uk

I've used the phrase "This is a game of Machiavellian politics and personal horror, now here's 50 pages of rules for decapitating your enemies with a katana" far too many times.

The controller market is really weird right now. 3rd party manufacturers have been improving rapidly for the last 3-4 years.
1st party console controllers from Sony and MS simply aren't the best in class any more when better controllers can be had for half the price.

They aren't the usual half arsed things designed to make you like the game and then feel like you need to spend more to actually play properly.
Apparently the head of Black Chantry made a point of using the basic decks in tournaments and managed to reach the final each time.

Ooof.

We've had some games recently using the 5 decks in the starter set and the main thing that's landed well for us is that these preconstructed decks are absolutely competitive.

A stack of 9 Vampire the Eternal Struggle decks.

Dammit, all this thinking and talking about V:tM has ended up with me buying a ton of Vampire: the Eternal Struggle cards.

Black Chantry have done a phenomenal job keeping this game going and have managed to modernise it and bring it in line with V5 without losing what made it so good 30 years ago.

I remember that some stuff fell. And it ended up "out" .
And also that war never changes.

I've always felt Pendragon was a narrative game cosplaying as a Trad game, or maybe some Voltron style bolt-together hybrid thing.

I probably need to revisit it, last time I read it I came away not really digging it. That was a while ago and I suspect I'd find more to like there now.

That is disturbingly accurate.

Nobody said it was perfect 🤣
I'd say it's more that it was a lightweight system which was designed to be run leaning more on the mechanics to resolve the feeling and vibe of the action rather than the details?