Quantity is truly the missing element of a “feels like old trek” modern trek. Modern studio sensibilities just can’t stomach having a 25 episode season, but you need to spend that much time with a cast to become sufficiently attached and have a fleshed out world. High quality short seasons are good for prestige TV but for ensemble explorations of philosophy in a sci fi setting, 10 episodes doesn’t cut it.
Everything always feels in such a damn rush because writers are either afraid they aren’t going to get to tell all the stories they want or they’re fearful/ pressured that if every episode isn’t the end of the world stakes that people won’t be invested. Too high stakes is such an anti trope at this point in almost all screen media.
I disagree with the idea that you can’t get attached to characters or have a fleshed out world in shorter seasons. I’ve become more attached to the SNW and Lower Decks characters in 20 and 30 episodes, respectively, and to the characters in the Expanse (for a non Trek example) than I ever did with Voyager’s or Enterprise’s characters over hundreds of episodes. The key is good writing and acting that fleshes out the characters, not having 26 episodes, half of which are inconsequential or worse, outright garbage. I do agree that 10 episodes is on the short side and think 13 would be ideal.
As for the stakes being higher and higher iterations of the end of the world, again that’s a separate issue with writing, not always tied to a short season length.
That’s fair, I’m not saying it’s bad in any way, but I doubt the experience is enhanced in any way by it being a more tight story (unlike many dramas where succinctness does add to the plot). It would just be that much better if it had a little time and space to breath.
I think if you had 26 episodes of which only 10 were worthwhile it’d be about the same difference. The trick is more episodes without sacrificing quality too much. Obviously a big ask but that’s why it’s hard to make good tv lol
True, although LD and SNW have for sure drawn down the serialization if not outright abandoned it. I really like that about the new shows (and why discovery is my least favorite of all treks). I guess I was just commenting on pieces where the formula has not yet been tweaked, cause they did tweak it there to great effect.
When you're spending a lot on a show, you simply can't afford to take risks, do seemingly unimportant filler episodes, and the risk of cancellation is always high.
It's a bit like LEXX, the cult SF show from the 90s. Cheaply made, poor SFX, frankly insane plot, often outright bad, small audience Still managed to go for a full four seasons, wasn't ever cancelled but ended on its own terms and got to do some weird and wonderful stuff while it was on air. Meanwhile something like The Expanse, which was invariably high quality and had a large audience, was still cancelled before Amazon stepped in.
It's the same thing with B-movies. A lot of cheap crappy movies can be really interesting, exactly because they're cheap/crappy movies and no one cares. Gives the writers a lot of freedom.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE MAJORITY OF THE COMMUNITY ASKED FOR. For years after D&D Beyond launched the community by and large asked "Why don't I get a digital copy of the book when I buy the paper copy?" The answer was, because D&D Beyond only licensed the books and was not owned by Wizards of the Coast.
When WOTC bought D&D Beyond the community asked, "Will we finally get digital copies when we buy a physical copy?" And when WOTC said yes, the community rejoiced.
Now that WOTC is making good on said promise, people have to write articles about how it's concerning behavior?
The big issue is that not every copy of the PHB will just come with a code for D&DBeyond out of the box. The bundle deals (which are $10/15€ more expensive than the retail book price) are only available from wizards directly, screwing over your FLGS.
And then there's of course the obvious issue of D&D Beyond being insanely expensive from the start.
They are hiking the prices of books across the board, is assume books will start coming with codes no matter where you buy them. But that's just an assumption.
As for the cost of Beyond, no additional payment is required to use your digital books. They are the only part of Beyond I have ever used.
I'm winding down this two-year campaign I've been running and then ditching 5e for some other system. I made that decision back when the whole OGL shitstorm happened. I just don't trust them to not screw around with things anymore, and, anyway, every time they come out with another UA for One D&D, I read it and get pissed off again.
So they can bundle deez nuts. I'm moving to (probably) FATE or Blades in the Dark.
I've run a few sessions in Blades on occasions where a member of the group has been away for an extended period of time. It's definitely a different mindset to DM than 5e, and I don't feel like I've really gotten the hang of it yet, but everyone's had fun and they all unanimously agree that they'd enjoy moving over to that system once this campaign is done.
The biggest learning curve is getting a handle on the players having so much more story agency. It's hard to explain; a lot of the time, Blades puts the DM into the reactive role, whereas 5e very much has the players in the reactive role in a lot of situations (even though it doesn't feel like it in the moment). So there are times in Blades when the players are supposed to be telling me what happens next, but they're waiting for me to tell them what happens next. It's hard to get over some of 5e's deeper training.
For example, in Blades, the players tell me what action they're attempting and what stat they'd like to roll for it, and I set the difficulty based on that; however, it's difficult for them to not ask me what stat they should be using to roll for an action. So if a player wants to get through a door, they would say "I want to break down this door using Wreck" or "Tinker" or "Finesse" or "Attune" or whatever stat their character is good with, and describe what that looks like, then I'm supposed to tell them "Ok, that will be a Risky action with a Standard effect" or "That's not going to be the best way to do this; it going to be a Desperate action with a Limited effect" or whatever, and then they either roll for it or choose another approach. But what typically happens in game is the player will say "I want to break down this door. What do you want me to roll for that? Is that Wreck? Oh, I don't have any points in Wreck. Is anyone else good at Wreck?"
There are a lot of things like that, where 5e has trained my players to look to me when the Blades systems puts it in their hands to choose. And I'm not much better about it; for example, it's super hard for me to remember that I'm supposed to tell them how difficult and how effective their proposed action will be before they roll. The 5e convention of "Roll Dex for that. Oh, so close, you didn't hit the DC" has a strong grip on me, even though I'm supposed to say "You want to roll Finesse? Ok, if you roll finesse, that's going to be [difficulty] and have [rating] effect; do you want to go with that?" and they can say "Yes, I want to do that" or "No, I want to try something else instead" or "How can I make my odds better?". I LIKE that change, it's just hard to incorporate after so many years of 5e.
We switched from Fate to D&D 5e in 2014 when the Starter Set came out. Over the years we've added lots of rules from B/X, 2e, and RC, and homemade rules too. I want to give the "Fate Condensed" rule set a serious try but my group just doesn't like Fate. It's too much "make up your own stuff" (especially the aspects) and too little "select among cool existing crunch" for their taste. If I made a long list of aspect suggestions they might be into that. IDK.
Darklands is a historical fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by MicroProse in 1992 for MS-DOS. The game is set in the Holy Roman Empire during the 15th century. While the geographic setting is historically accurate, the game features many supernatural elements.
Alpha Strike is definitely more my speed. The rules are more streamlined letting you get more minis on the table or have quicker games and while they do kind of remove some of the uniqueness of Mechs they also make a bunch of Mechs that would never be viable absolutely playable.
It was a good episode and confirmed what I was feeling about Omega since mid season 2. I predict she will leave the Batch at the end of this season and go train.
I also predict most of the clones leftover after a big battle will die or scatter into hiding.
The first cutaway immediately made me think of the APC from Aliens. It had a sealed environment and a mini command center since it was designed to deploy into hostile environments. Then it turns out the Proteus was designed in the same vein. It’s a cool bit of lore. It’d be fun to see an advanced exploratory team dropped onto a brand new world in a Proteus - a Warhammer version of Star Trek.
Whelp, there go my plans for the week. Guess ill wait till the leask or relase of the full codex before I start building my crisis suits. Glad this came out before i started setting weapons
Went to the page, read about it, and then to the Modiphius page to buy the book where it estimated shipping at $37 for untracked US Post Office?? For a single book? The shipping is almost as much as the book. Speaking of Star Trek, what kind of parallel universe did I wake up in? That is insane!
Yeah, shipping is insane especially if you don’t live in the US or the UK. If you have a local game store or one relatively nearby, it might be better to order from there. I bought most of mine from a local store and it was cheaper than the price on Modiphius’ US site and no shipping charge because I could go pick it up.
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