Real Lich Hours 7: Blighted Village (Part 2)
Added 2024-01-28 21:45:40 +0000 UTCI do feel bad for the village, but what about my blight?
Comments
I know this is an older episode and I'm a little late, but I want to add my take to the discussion about how sexual this game is. In real life I'm not really into sexual stuff or relationships, but in this game and games like these I do enjoy them. Mass Effect specifically is one of my fav games of all time mostly because of my relationships with the characters and specifically the romantic relationship I developed with Garrus in that trilogy. I'm playing through BG3 for the first time and I have not decided who I want to romance but I know I do and I am interested in going into that part of the game. I understand why people don't and I wasn't around for the bug with Gale, so I can't speak to how it felt before, but now I really enjoy it and while as of now Mass Effect still beats out BG3 in romance for me, I see the appeal of these characters. I can't speak on table top romance because I've never played it, I bet I'd enjoy that as well as long as I am comfortable with the other players. Honestly I don't play these types of game because I love the challenge or game play, I play for the story. Romance is just a part of that story and it honestly makes me feel more connected to the character I'm playing.
Megan Boone
2024-03-09 01:39:53 +0000 UTCPetition to replace ledge play with the official term: LEDGEMANCER
Kyle C.
2024-02-27 17:35:07 +0000 UTCAh yeah it let me give Shadowheart an orchid but that was well into act 3. She was very pleased and said she'd "find a way to say thank you" or whatever but that never happened. Oh well
Charlie Frame
2024-02-08 09:36:34 +0000 UTCFyi re Minthara - must be knocked out when she is temporarily hostile to join your party. Learnt that the hard way. Need to self report that absolutely I must have every playable character sitting around unused at the camp. Agree romance w tabletop doesn't really work. It does in BG3, better than any other game by an order of magnitude, kudos to Larian. Agree feeling horny in the face of death is bizarre. However if I was a stallion at the peak of fitness with a new bed partner every other week, I can see how that would be a thing.
Brad
2024-02-08 09:30:06 +0000 UTCYou have to chat the characters up at key moments. You can flub it believe it or not. Karlach is pretty straight forward, Shadowheart you have to not be pushy, remember how she feels about swimming and give her a certain flower in act 2. The guys are easy from what I've seen. The only exception is Astarion who appears to have standards. Maybe it's your charisma stat.
Brad
2024-02-08 09:26:22 +0000 UTCSo my dnd group has a lot of sexual activity in our game, BUT it’s usually our characters making advances on NPCs (and a funny caveat here is we all almost always fail or critically fail our rolls to successfully hit on NPCs). We’re all in our 30s, so not sure if we qualify as young (haha), and we’re also about 57% queer (4 of 7 of us) and two of us are polyamorous, which I honestly think has something to do with the lack of inhibition in that form of role playing. Hah! As a lifelong gamer who only recently (in the last 3 years) got into RPGs, I have to say, I love the romance storylines. For me, it adds so much texture to the game, especially given the wildly diverse experience you can have based on who you’re romancing, how you romance them, character alignment, and whether or not you role play. I think the different romances are so beautifully done, and they allow so much more insight into the nuances, vulnerabilities, and desires of the companion characters.
Natalie Garro
2024-02-07 15:52:47 +0000 UTCWelcome, newcomers to duckfeed. Please enjoy the remarks on horse fucking and whiskey flaps.
Thunk
2024-01-31 07:30:27 +0000 UTCDunno what I've been doing wrong but I'm in act 3 with strong approval from my whole party and other than a very early, rather aggressive come-on by Lae'zel there have been no romance opportunities in this game so far at all. I guess I'll just die alone
Charlie Frame
2024-01-30 18:26:17 +0000 UTCAlso, if you get Minthara and Halsin in your party, they share a tent. I'm pretty sure the camp layout was not designed with both in mind. Interestingly, Minthara has opinions on Wyll and Karlach, despite them being initially exclusive.
Autumn M
2024-01-29 22:32:22 +0000 UTCThe sex/romance at the table discussion has been on my mind lately, since I've gotten into a free in-development TTRPG called "Vice & Violence." Since its developer has the in-progress book online as he works on it I originally thought to just link it in my comment, but I decided against it since the setting isn't just NSFW, but is explicitly pornographic. Its one-person team is adult artist Jack Cayless, more findable under the name "Rapscallion," and his expertise as a porn artist absolutely comes through in the setting. (if you're looking for a part of this comment to trim, this next paragraph is just me pitching the game) However, instead of it being a Vampire: the Masquerade-style dark, serious, erotic world, he's put together a whimiscal, carefree world populated nearly entirely of people who are just looking for a fun time filled with fighting, drinking, gambling, adventuring, and fucking each other. The short backstory is the Gods are on attempt fourteen of making a world stable enough to not require their intervention, but chaotic enough to be entertaining to watch, and have fucked up as badly as possible. He's made my favorite depiction of Goblins (feral, snarling monsters who become befuddled, suddenly-sentient creatures by accidentally eating the right psychoactive mushrooms), Elves (a wild civilization so enthralled by the perfect beauty of nature that they've given up eating plants entirely in favor of cannibalism), and even managed to make Half-Elves interesting (a people who's clumsy genetic makeup guarantees slight musculature, nearsightedness, and brittle, jagged teeth that grow stones for reinforcement, resulting in an entire sub-race of skinny nerds). The reason I bring it up is because the book knows exactly what it is, and includes a guide to helpfully negotiate a "Lewd Level" setting for everyone involved. Thankfully this page is actually safe for work: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/388340137508995072/1183205378176077834/SPOILER_image.png I'm squarely in the camp of someone who can't fathom sitting across the table from my friends and making up a story where all our characters fuck each other, but this game's world is full of so much potential, and I appreciate its creator going out of his way to make sure that everyone has a place in it. The PDF of its in-progress source book is linked in the creator's twitter, and I encourage anyone with an interest to take a look. Quick P.S.: I've been listening to the network for years and years, and RLH almost immediately became my favorite series. I've listened to each episode multiple times since its launched. Love how the network has grown, keep up the great work.
Matt Bixler! Hello!
2024-01-29 21:44:20 +0000 UTCHey y’all! Just wanted to mention a cool damaging cantrip that had a lot of utility in certain builds! Shillelagh! It’s really sweet on druids at the early levels, especially spores where you’re in the thick of things. It also works pretty well when using one of the cool caster staves that deal additional elemental damage.
Matt S
2024-01-29 20:11:25 +0000 UTCFor the youth players in the game I run as a volunteer, we do a Session 0 to get everyone situated with the game and determine all of our Lines and Veils. Lines are things that people don't ever want to come up. Veils are things that can happen, but not in detail. We also keep an X card on hand. The most common Lines are romance and sexuality, violence against animals, drug and alcohol intoxication, extreme violent acts, and fighting between player characters. Some of the youth have other ones, like no infinite spaces, no falling from great heights, or no zombies.
Autumn M
2024-01-29 19:19:25 +0000 UTCAs a man coming to terms with the fact that I'm approaching 40, and doing tabletop stuff for a good portion of the time I've been alive, I can say that for folks around my age and above, sex/romance really doesn't show up at the table. However, surprisingly often with what would be considered GenZ, this is a topic that has been surprisingly frequent. The Youngs are very horny and willing to explore those feelings openly in a way that reminds me of the 70s stereotype of everyone being down to clown all the time. Fortunately, everyone I know worth playing with is familiar with safety tools at the game table, especially Lines and Veils. (lines being topics that will not be brought up in play, veils being stuff that asks for a fade-to-black). Safety tools are incredibly useful not only for romance boundaries but also horror boundaries. They are easily the best thing I've added to my hobby and are especially easy to use now that we have tech. For example you can set up a spreadsheet on Google drive for people to fill out their lines and veils anonymously so no one has to oust themselves as the one who's not OK with something.
Matthew Woodyard
2024-01-29 17:45:52 +0000 UTCI think what I really enjoy about the romance aspect in this game is the opportunity for fun personality clashes. Romancing Shadowheart as a Selune Cleric makes for some great dialogue that Larian went out of their way to add. Or playing an Origin character like the Dark Urge, resisting the Urge to maintain a stable relationships. And also boundaries you can set to your partner, which I think is pretty neat. I think there is a good friendship relationship to be had with Astarion even of you don’t romance him, and I also like how sex doesn’t automatically equate love. It’s a lot better handled than the average BioWare title at least. It’s not what I like about CRPGs or these types of games in general but what is there is pretty neat.
Christopher Grunert Pedersen
2024-01-29 11:24:55 +0000 UTCLedge play huh? Thorn Whip is amazing for it but Eldritch Blast might edge it out just a bit! Both are extremely booned by the psionic ability you get that gives extra psychic damage from fall damage. Pair it with those two cantrips and they’re both extremely effective. Ray of Frost is the Red Eyes to Fire Bolt’s Blue Eyes. Ray of frost gets all these weird niche buffs from rings or staffs that amp the secondary cold effect. The ice on the floor, shit like that. My next character is going to be exclusively weather based so I can’t wait to play around with that stuff.
Mateus Silva
2024-01-29 05:26:59 +0000 UTCY’know I’ve never been one for sex in media. I don’t dislike it but it’s a bummer when it’s something like a game or an anime or something I’d want to show someone y’know? This game handles is so well because in order for me to even begin that slope of content I have to opt in as a player. This might be too heavy a word but I am consenting to seeing the content. It’s not like I’m just watching a movie with fam that’s PG13 and all of a sudden it’s like… wanna smoke break while this scene happens? I appreciate the game telegraphing it so well. As this is my first crpg I found it off putting that looking in the inventory I could change or undress the character I was romancing completely. I was like woah there where’s the privacy? It’s interesting. And like in hindsight after completing the game it is the DM just giving you full control but as a person just lil ole me I was like what am I supposed to do with this information? I don’t think this game handles sex poorly and I do think some of the romance stuff is cute like shadow heart and Karlach are both really sweet and tender relationships as y’all said. Whereas halsin and Minthara feel a bit more smutty? And I love the breadth and accounting of preference.
Mateus Silva
2024-01-29 04:38:52 +0000 UTCLol fair enough. My bad memory and disinterest keeps me from remembering anything but their basic points. Kinda started out with decent points, but in the end it boiled down to if *insert Japanese title* has nudity and bear sex it's trash, but if BG3 has it it's incredible.
Brian Castiano
2024-01-29 00:54:12 +0000 UTCit has a fairly different flavor of horny to Pussy Prison 2: Ass Girls style visual novels, I'll say. -GB
Duckfeed.tv
2024-01-29 00:44:21 +0000 UTCI didn't have any interest in this game until it was about to be released so the only thing I saw about the sex and nudity were people complaining that it was getting praised, or at least looked at positively by reviewers that had blasted Japanese games for having the same thing. Basically east vs west. I could see where they were coming from, but it got to a bit of an annoying level that I just avoided reading or watching anyone discussing it. Personally I don't have strong opinions one way or another, I just enjoy what I enjoy.
Brian Castiano
2024-01-29 00:26:57 +0000 UTCI personally dislike romance in roleplaying games because I’m just not interested in that aspect of roleplaying, but I will say if it wasn’t for the saucy sex scenes this game wouldn’t have been such an easy sell to my non-gamer girlfriend.
Stoned Skeleton
2024-01-28 23:49:22 +0000 UTCTo address Gary's points of tabletop gaming and romance at the table I can say that, yes, it happens all the time and only when the group is comfortable. Now, there are some major caveats in my experience bur here are usually how things play out: 1. It is entirely player initiated and almost always with the GM/NPCs. 2. We fade to black. Not a single mention of actual intimacy is narrated or, god forbid, expressed in gameplay. THAT is one toke over the line, sweet Jesus. 3. Nothing happens if players feel uncomfortable, and we ALWAYS make sure we’re all comfortable. For me it’s become a fun in-joke at the table that I as a DM make “extremely fuckable NPCs”, but also just good NPCs that my players want to interact with between combat encounters. The same is true when I’ve been on the other side of the GM screen. We don’t like to romance each other, because that does feel awkward. BUT, having a romantically flavored NPC you interact with for character bits can be real fun and a good way to explore and understand your character better. It’s not about being horny on main, and just trying to be sex positive. Which isn’t to say that not including those elements (or wanting to take part in them) is sex negative. It all boils down to trusting my friends to not be weirdos or inappropriate at the table and respect boundaries. We’ve known each other for over a decade now, so we’re all comfortable with each other to make sex jokes, talk about sex, and include the fact that our characters are sexual people as well, unless they just don't want to engage with that aspect, which also happens a lot.
Jonathan Scratch
2024-01-28 22:47:48 +0000 UTC
