Total Pebble Knockdown

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Fallout got a TV show and Nathan thinks it did a really good job at representing the series, even for people who have no previous experience with the series. Let's talk about how the characters help introduce many of the big themes about Fallout. Also, how can you adapt one medium into another, especially when you move from an interactive to non-interactive one? Demos can really help sell a game to skeptical players, but they need to succeed at a handful of things. What are those things? We are going to discuss what we look for in demos for them to work. KlaytonCalix gave us an odd article where the former president of Blizzard suggested tipping for great games. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this idea. There is absolutely no way to exploit this monetization. And so, let's discuss how game companies will absolutely make this work perfectly. https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/former-blizzard-president-suggests-you-should-be-able-to-leave-a-dollar10-or-dollar20-tip-for-the-devs-because-some-games-are-that-special/

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Nine years ago we released the 1st episode of Delve, a podcast about game mechanics. On this episode we revisit some of our early topics from the show. What are some of the RPG skills that don't get represented in games? Can you build small machines or mediate a discussion between others? We talk about the skills that are often not listed in the player's handbook. We just keep going back to hit points. It's a problem and we understand that. Today we try to figure out why so many games will revert back to this system and how it is represented on the screen. Perhaps it should be hidden behind the screen? Perhaps this is also about user interface... The Design Delve video Alex won't shut up about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHdY7956gwg In D&D there are two ways we determine Armor Class. One is by the armor you are wearing and the other is by your dexterity score. Although these are functionally different, they are mechanically the same in the game. Can we make them less similar? Maybe we can play off the different ways we derive this stat and how it affects our character.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Should we worry about RPG campaigns that are focused on storytelling? An article shared with one of our long-time friends of the show discussed an experience where plot dominated the agency of the players. We discuss the legitimacy of this concern and also talk about how we disagree with the conclusion. Realm Builder Guy - https://www.realmbuilderguy.com/2023/10/why-storyline-plot-driven-campaigns-are.html Hey folks, let's go battle a church! No, I mean let's literally fight a church. This was one question from Reddit we had to discuss. What if there's a church that wants to eat your party? And should we try to keep them from getting eaten by the church? What fun would that be. Fighting a Church - https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1b7flyr/how_could_i_make_my_party_fight_a_church/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1b7flyr/how_could_i_make_my_party_fight_a_church/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 Fake games have been an ongoing discussion on Steam for many years. In fact, a spate of fake games (poorly made shovelware) was discussed back in 2017 when we got the Steam Explorers program. But now, the problem is games disguising themselves as more popular ones to trick people into buying them. This is our PSA to gamers on why buyers should be aware. Helldivers 2 imposters - https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/several-steam-games-changed-names-to-helldivers-2-and-palworld-to-scam-players/ Two indie games in a trenchcoat - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/two-indie-steam-games-were-disguised-as-helldivers-2-to-scam-players/ Steam Explorers - https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/4/15172908/valve-steam-explorers-system-direct-fake-games

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: After seeing the end of joy that was Willy's Chocolate Experience in Glasgow, Scotland, Nathan felt inspired to make his own version of a trainwreck with "Super Awesome Dungeon". While it may not have oompa loompa at home or AI image promotion, it may have three goblins in a trenchcoat. The Chocolate Experience that wasn't - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/27/glasgow-willy-wonka-experience-slammed-as-farce-as-tickets-refunded?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews Delivery of nightmares - https://www.themarysue.com/what-happened-at-the-glasgow-willy-wonka-experience-explained/ House of Illuminati - https://houseofilluminati.com/ If your players don't like haggling, why do they keep trying to do it. Nathan loses his mind over a Reddit post where a GM tries to figure out why players be like that and we work out ways to mitigate this very odd problem. The lovely post that brought us this gem - https://x.com/gwinglemove/status/1755272258921140572?s=20 What would happen if you found an ancient artifact in the pyramids? What if it was a Yu-Gi-Oh card? In all seriousness, a very fun thread on this leads us to discuss lost gaming media, specifically dead games. What are the games we remember playing that are nowhere to be found now? A thread worth remembering - https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1763169557521318337.html?utm_campaign=topunroll#google_vignette

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: What if you went to the Van Gogh Museum and came away with a painting of Pikachu? Crazy, right? Anyway, that was an actual possibility in 2023 and is possibly going to happen again. So, let us discuss Pikachu in Grey Felt Hat and brand integration with museums. Pokemon x Van Gogh - https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/about/collaborate/van-gogh-museum-brand-licenses/collaboration-license-partners/van-gogh-museum-x-pokemon Pikachu makes a comeback - https://www.forbesindia.com/article/lifes/is-amsterdams-van-gogh-museum-ready-for-a-new-round-of-pokemon-mania/90971/1 Museums & Brands - https://www.forbesindia.com/article/lifes/museums-and-brands-is-it-a-marriage-made-in-heaven/88419/1 Video games can be high cuisine, but they can also be junk food. However, on this episode we are defending the junk food games, those which may not leave you feeling deeply satisfied but instead leaves you feeling like you successfully killed a few hours with little brain power required. Coincidentally, we talk a bunch about Ship Graveyard Simulator 2. After diving back into survival crafting games with Palworld, Nathan experienced an old problem worth mentioning: the obscene amount of workbenches. Why do we need such specific workbenches? Why do we have to keep crafting new, better versions of the existing ones? Is there a better way?

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• It’s Steam Next Fest 2024 and KlaytonClaix rejoins us to tell us some fun games he played as the plethora of demos fell upon us. He takes a second look at Folklands, gets his tactics on in Sword of Convallaria, does some resource collecting in Isometria, builds a better skeleton in Necrosmith 2 and makes a sweet gun in NIMRODS.

• Alex also played demos during Next Fest and had some titles worth discussing. We find out what Voxlands actually is, automate with Omega Crafter and OddSparks, and scratch our head at Artifact Seeker (subtitle not legible).

• Nathan takes you down a rabbit hole of demos he played as we run down a lightning round of 8 titles he played. Then we get into the 3 titles worth explaining in detail: NeverGrave, Pacific Drive and Lonely Space.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Some games deserve a second chance. Nathan talks about some of the games he plans on giving this chance in 2024 and what he hopes to get out of the experience.

• We are not a news program. However, we are hoping to revisit old news stories that fell by the wayside. What ever happened with the OpenGL or Unity stories? What happened to the bad games that got apology jpegs? Probably subjects worth exploring.

• It’s the beginning of the year and so we should do an update about what we are doing with TPK stuff, like Discord, Patreon, YouTube, our website and our merchandise. Housekeeping time!

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Nothing gets Nathan in the holiday spirit like Die Hard. On this episode, we become John McClane and create a quest to stop an assault on a wizard’s tower. Is it part of a campaign or a one shot? How does our party get there? How do they stop the fantasy terrorists? Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? All that and more on this festive episode.

• When Frank Capra made It’s a Wonderful Life, he could only imagine that one day we would use the premise to create an end-of-campaign scenario for a TTRPG. Truly this would be his crowning achievement. What would the world look like if your PCs were never in it? How about OUR PCs? Should we be afraid to find out? Also, a spicy Nathan explains why he didn’t actually like the movie.

• Home Alone is the best Christmas movie of all time according to ‘90s kids. Since Kevin McCallister is the OG murder hobo, we can easily take his home defense strategy and apply it to… magical bandicoots? How would we defend an abandoned town from a furry swarm of destruction? And can we remember where the family went in the 1st and 2nd movie?

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• There are many gaming mysteries, from glitchy pokemon to unattainable chests to questions about who kicked off a nuclear war. However, we have avoided discussing these things on the show. And now we explain the reason why.

• We were once told we were bad at reviewing games. This is particularly weird since we do not review games. So, let’s discuss what we are apparently very bad at doing.

• Drama alert? Not here. While we talk about industry news that might affect gaming or gamers, we’ve avoided discussing drama inside the community. This is intentional. We will now explain why.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Dadam inquired into games that we should have liked but really did not. We discuss some of the games that work for us IN THEORY but do not IN PRACTICE. Get ready to hear about some Souls-likes, Metroidvanias and Cozy Games.

• Alex is very excited to discuss the first support spec for World of Warcraft and how it has affected the game. So much so that he brought charts. Does this fundamentally change the 20-year-old game and will it open the door to other support types in the future?

• When we looked over One D&D classes last week, we started questioning what Weapon Mastery was. After looking further into the UnEarthed Arcana documentation, Nathan found information on this brand new mechanic for One D&D and how it can add additional functionality to your regular weapons. Let’s see how it potentially affects our old favorites like the Rapier, Spear and Longbow.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Nathan went back to play the Mass Effect Trilogy thanks to the recent Legendary Edition release. However, now facing the ending of ME3, he has gotten a sudden reluctance to finish the last leg of his journey. Why is that happening? What prevents us from finishing a game even when we really like it?

• You wander into town and your party goes directly to the tavern or the shops or the castle… or maybe to the notice board? We rarely use the good old-fashioned idea of a town bulletin board, but there are many cool uses to expand the world-building, storyline and questlines by using them. What can we learn by going to check out random posts at the town hall?

• Nathan has been attempting to do real world gardening for several years and has realized there are many missing mechanics from your typical farming game. Why don’t they tell you about over-watering? Why do I never need to pull out a PH or light meter? Are they suggesting all plants like the same kind of soil?

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Imagine coming back from your epic adventure to find that you were a legend that existed 1,000 years ago. Now what do you do? Are your parents still there? Does anyone recognize you? What was the last quest you went on? We explore another adventure hook as Nathan leads Alex down a time trippy rabbit hole.

• What if you took Stardew Valley and smashed it together with Dark Souls? Think about it. Now you don’t have to, because we spent time working out the pitch for such a game. What will be our farming/dying ratio? Let’s find out.

• Perhaps it’s time to sunset the idea of the tragic backstory. It’s been a common trope among RPG characters for decades now, but it’s getting very boring. We discuss some of our characters and how their backstories were interesting without being tragic. Avoid heading down Crime Alley with us!

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Last week, Klaus Teuber, the legendary game designer who created Catan, passed away. So, we are talking a bit about Catan, specifically the differences between the board game and the dice game that came later. How did the mechanics change in the process and what had to get sacrificed to make the switch? Nathan finally gets to talk about this modern classic board game.

• What are realistic expectations that new players should have going into TTRPGs? During our live show our crew started talking about the influence of livestreams and liveplays on roleplaying games. Is it unrealistic to expect an epic roleplay experience out of the gate? And is there really a problem with NOT doing an epic campaign?

• So, you have a PC that can fly. This can cause some issues with creative problem solving if you can just fly over the terrain. What can you do to make flying characters included in your party without overshadowing the abilities of everyone else? Let’s soar over that topic as we go Delving Deeper.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• In a follow-up to our discussion on the PS6, we talk about the main reason for the Sony document that got revealed. Intriguingly enough, it has little to do with the PS6 and far more to do with Call of Duty’s future on Sony consoles. What if GamePass gets Activision/Blizzard titles? What happens if they become exclusive to Microsoft? We will look at some of the heavily-redacted documentation to see what Sony is actually talking about.

• After picking up the PDF of Kids on Bikes, Nathan noticed an interesting piece about collaborative world-building early into the RPG. So, let’s talk about how it implements this collective ideation and how we would build a town using this fraemwork.

• Should you tell your players about the bad guy’s weakness? Also, should the biggest bad guy have a weakness in the first place? Should your players be given another way to fight that opponent? Is there a conveniently placed lever for a trap door? All this and more on a Crit Think.

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:

• Managing money in the real world is pretty hard, but managing multiple currencies in a game can be unneccessarily harder. Can there be a justification for using multiple currencies or is it just there to complicate things that should be easy to understand?
• So, the party wants to fight each other in ritual combat. Just a typical Saturday night at the tavern. The question is: Should you let them go full-on battle royale on each other, even if it’s at the end of a campaign? And what should the rogue be able to get away with stealing to give themselves an advantage?
• So, we should probably talk about boss battles that we kind of enjoyed, we think. Although it is hard to quantify the best boss battles we have witnessed in all the games we have played, a few stuck in our heads that seemed memorable. So, we’re going to discuss those. Warning: Spoilers for like 3 or 4 high profile games that came out 5+ years ago.