urban bohemian

More modern than The Swanktuary, less verbose than my blog. Curating the snippets I find around Tumblr and the internet without worrying about the signal-to-noise ratio.

[urban-bohemian]

The phrase, “It’s been a long pandemic,” and similar come to mind far too often lately. Especially when I think about all the events happening around town that I’d make sure to visit. Staying at home was the safer option, of course, but that didn’t mean it was the most fun. So I was very happy when the stars and calendar aligns and I was able to head to see this year’s SAAM Arcade at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Turn the volume up for SAAM Arcade 2023! Music and sound design are essential elements in the gaming experience. A soaring soundtrack engages players and draws them into the game narrative; a charming 8-bit tune reminds players of hours spent with friends and family, overcoming challenging puzzles and defeating extraordinary opponents. Music can act as a building block for game worlds and a mechanic for navigating those worlds through rhythm and repetition. This year’s Indie Showcase will highlight games that use music and sound design in engaging, experimental, and inventive ways, from classic rhythm games to musical puzzles to groundbreaking soundtracks.

My friend and I have been trying to get together a little bit more now that we’re both vaccinated several times over, while still limiting our contact with the outside world, and that’s mostly meant that we head out or hang out for Saturday brunches. And since starting to engage with the city again–more or less treating it like new, we’ve been putting events on the calendar to try and catch exhibits and exhibitions before they leave the local venues.

It just so happened that I was wondering what we might do at the weekend when I got an email about SAAM Arcade happening that Saturday. I floated the idea, the committee debated it–it’s us, we’re the committee–and decided it would be a fun thing to try. Not only that, but a nearby restaurant was new–to us–for brunch, so we’d get to try a new place to eat, enjoy good food and drinks and then enjoy a little museum time.

It’s always a good time, being able to see video games treated as art, the way they should. And the first time I visited this event, it was more than a little mind-blowing to see video games front and center in a museum. Not only that, but that it was a true family event with people from all age groups reminiscing over their first console, or learning more about video games from their kids than they may have expected.

With the theme being “Thinking Musically,” many of the games involved incorporated music and sound in imaginative ways, and they hosted several musical acts and DJs throughout the day. Though I also appreciated that they started the day with “quiet hours” in case people might not want too much sensory overload.

The Triforce Quartet at SAAM Arcade 2023

I always love seeing the history laid out via gaming consoles. This year didn’t have as many as previous events, but I did get to see my old school Atari 2600 out there along with consoles going forward through time up to modern day. They even had a few arcade cabinets, with Pac-Man of course.

Normally, they would have had games, vendors, and local interest groups throughout the museum, and in the past have even held gaming competitions, but I imagine they’re hesitant to go overboard since you can’t really gauge crowd sizes during a pandemic. Still, it was nice to see both classic and indie games that I recognized.

I did geek out a little bit to a woman in line waiting to see “Unpacking” up close as I was explaining what the game was all about, and she told me that she doesn’t know a lot about video games and had assumed that most of them were the types of shooters her kid plays. So to see independent developers given space to showcase their unique titles was really cool.

The Indie Developers Showcase

Smash n’ Dab

The Forest Quartet

TUNIC

Rhythm Ranger

Soundfall

Unpacking

NEO GEO Cabinets

Atari 2600 home gaming consoles with games Moon Patrol and Dig Dug.

Speaking of which, and since the event is past, here’s where you can find information on the games and devs invited to this year’s SAAM Arcade for the Independent Developer Showcase:

Betrayal at Club Low by Cosmo D Studios

Forest Quartet by Mads Vadsholt and Bedtime Digital Games

Rhythm Ranger by Moonradish

Smash n’ Dab by Will Herring

Soundfall by Drastic Games

TUNIC by Isometricorp Games

Unknown Number by Meaning Machine

Unpacking by Witch Beam Studios

It made for a really pleasant afternoon and we also took the time out to wander the museum so we could visit the exhibit Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies exploring the connections between recent video art and popular music. And that’s there through January 2024. so if you’re in the area, be sure to check it out!

This coming weekend we’re going to try to check out Imagining the future – Leonardo da Vinci: In the mind of an Italian genius at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown. I’ve heard there can be a line and a wait, but that like restaurant reservations they encourage you to wander and explore and then just text you when it’s your turn in line.

I’ve lived in DC a long time, and “rediscovering” it like this makes it the city new and fun all over again. Remembering that while I do know this city, both it and I have changed and my experience of it was put on hold for 3 years. So why not reintroduce myself?

The post My Visit to SAAM Arcade 2023—Thinking Musically! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

OUTWRITE LITERARY FESTIVAL RETURNS WITH LGBTQ+ READINGS, POETRY, PANELS, AND WORKSHOPS

Three Days with Award-Winnings Authors and Critical Discussions

Washington, D.C. – OutWrite D.C., Washington’s LGBTQ+ Literary Festival returns on Friday, Aug. 11, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, with an all-virtual lineup. OutWrite 2023 features more than 55 LGBTQ+ authors, poets, novelists, playwrights, panelists, and activists participating in educational, entertaining, and enlightening events. Throughout the weekend patrons will encounter spirited readings, panel discussions on current critical topics, and workshops to advance the creation of outstanding LGBTQ+ literature. All events are free and open to the public, with registration encouraged.

OutWrite 2023 LGBTQ+ Literary Festival, August 11-13, 2023

OutWrite 2023 is laser focused on cultivating LGBTQ+ inclusivity in all literary genres to reflect and uplift the many voices and stories within the LGBTQ+ community. OutWrite also strives to highlight and celebrate BIPOC, Trans, and Nonbinary writers and readers alike.

OutWrite 2023 explores our LGBTQAI+ identities through literature and discussions, as our community faces unprecedented barrage of attacks threatening our rights to express who we are, what we think, and how we create and relay our experiences to others. It’s crucial now more than ever to offer safe spaces to share, explore, and hopefully expand the understanding of our history and our future. The OutWrite 2023 Literary Festival brings together tremendous talent from around the D.C. region and nation by featuring creatives whose imaginations and intellect supply the fuel for dialogue and change.

—OutWrite Chair Emily Holland

The OutWrite lineup of reading events brings to the D.C. community thought-provoking and powerful voices including: “Trans & Nonbinary Presents & Futures” speaking to the state of unsettling present and the future of queerness;, the “DC Pride Poem-a-Day Reading,” with eight poets celebrating the theme of “Heritage”; the keynote reading and discussion with the New York Times Editors’ Choice recipient Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, author of Big Girl, and a Black, queer, feminist perspective; the Asian retelling of Frankenstein with “The Outsider: Gender and Race in a Binary World;” and the insightful “Where We Stand: Poetry by Lesbians Over 60” which will explore being both the memory of the past as well as the future as spoken by Southern California lesbian poets.

The OutWrite lineup of panels will cover critical, informative and entertaining topics including: “Writing About, With, and Through AIDS,” “Queering the Publishing Industrial Complex,” “At the Gay Bar: LGBTQ+ Bars in History and as Community Centers,” “Queer Stories: Writing Our Way into Belonging,” “Existence as Resistance: Trans Poets on Nationwide Anti-Transness,” and “Queer Lives in Crime Fiction: LGBTQ+ Crime Writers in Conversation.”

The OutWrite workshops will inspire new ways to create art (“Ekphrasis Fantastic”), and explore letter writing as it contributes to the queer experience (“The Queer Love Letter”).

All OutWrite 2023 events will take place virtually, with panels and readings available for live viewing on The DC Center’s YouTube page, with the corresponding recordings uploaded and permanently available after the festival. Workshops will take place via Zoom, registration required.

For more information and the full lineup of OutWrite events, please visit the OutWrite webpage: https://thedccenter.org/outwrite/

From a press release.

The post OutWrite DC LGBTQ+ Literary Festival – Aug 11-13, 2023 first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

Look out, y’all, there’s a new contender for team/hero shooter out there, Exoprimal… and it has dinosaurs! I remain notoriously bad for knowing when new games are coming out, so I only realized this had been released when I saw Twitch streamers I follow playing it. Then, as a bonus, I saw that it’s currently on Game Pass, so I gave it a shot!

Not gonna lie, it’s giving Power Ranger Dino: Charge, Thunder and/or Fury, right? Is it just me?

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Exoprimal as I hadn’t heard anything about it, and all the visuals were about dinosaurs, but it’s a 5-person PvP / PvE team shooter. Set in a futuristic sci-fi world where human exofighters don exosuits to fight against the most dangerous game.

Game Narrative

Mystery Afoot!

Pros and Cons

Final Thoughts

No, not man, I was thinking it too. But in this case, it’s dinosaurs!

To get the obvious thing out of the way, Exoprimal doesn’t seem to be striving to bring anything completely new to the team shooter genre. You have different types of named exosuits, each with their own specialty: Assault, Tank, or Support. To get the other obvious thing out of the way… yes, it’s like a lot of other games out there and because of that, you’ll be able to hop in without too much onboarding.

* I should note that I have never played Dino Crisis, but I have read articles about how fans were expecting this might be a new version of that game and how it’s not that game–or even a revisit–at all.

The games this has reminded me of, so far, and that I’ll try not to mention again in this article: Anthem, Destiny, Overwatch, Battleborn, Paladins, Apex Legends, Valorant, etc. so it’s very much a recommendations-based, “If you liked these games, you might like Exoprimal.” Which served me well once I got past the tutorial. You’re always given one of the easier-to-use shooty DPS type characters to start with to give you a good understanding of how things work. From then you decide to try tanking, healing, damage-dealing, the usual… and prepare for the gameplay loop.

What has pulled me in so far, isn’t the gameplay loop, but the narrative one.

Ace, the protagonist AKA us. You can make them look however you want, but like many games, we don’t speak.

Quick summary: You start out working as an exofighter with a squad, all working for a benevolent over-corporation (the game makes sure to show you a “our company cares” commercial that is so over the top, you know they’re evil) in the year 2043. The company has been using an A.I. to direct squads like yours to deal with unexplained dinosaur outbreaks via unexplained vortexes that started 3 years ago.

Then something happens to throw your squad back in time, 3-years prior, into a series of everlasting wargames where you team up with other exofighters, all deemed to be from alternate timelines, against dinosaurs. Over and over again, so that the A.I. can collect “combat data” for reasons that aren’t made clear since the most important thing your squad has to do is survive.

The gameplay itself is fun! You’re in a responsive souped up sci-fi mech suit, armed with weapons and special abilities, and you’re facing off against waves upon waves of dinosaurs determined to tear your team limb from limb. And while it is fun, it would quickly get tiresome if you don’t like team shooters, if you don’t care for teaming up and chatting with randos (you can turn voice chat off), if the repetitive gameplay just isn’t your thing. I get it.

I would like to file a petition that string theory boards get a style upgrade. Maybe there’s a Canva template for that?

The thing is… there’s a mystery. And the game is really good at feeding you a little bit at a time. Every time you complete a match, you’re given another piece of the puzzle, usually involving more images, audio or a video cutscene that shows your squad talking and piecing together information. It’s essentially a digital “red-thread” evidence board. And it keeps me coming back.

I have already put an embarrassing number of hours into a game that I thought I was kinda meh about. However, I will say that playing it first on stream with live reactions in my own chat, then seeing it on other streams… it wasn’t the right game for me. I worry enough about repetitive content, which is why I generally don’t go for team shooters, Destiny 2 notwithstanding.

But playing it offline? With some music and comfort food and cocktails. While lurking in other streams, or a movie or TV series on another screen? It’s perfect. I’ve learned how to play well enough to be an effective team member. Matches don’t take that much time to play through, and at the end, I get shinies, in-game currency, and most important… another piece of the puzzle. That much has me utterly hooked.

Now, for the fair to middling things about the game. If you don’t have Game Pass, it’s currently $60 USD on all platforms, which is a lot, especially for a game that still has in-game transactions to buy skins, stickers, emblems and the like.

Exoprimal is using a “season pass” model, which seems to be the new thing for free-to-play and live service. And you’re also rewarded for staying faithful to an exosuit with an additional track of goodies for each one. Encouraging players to either specialize, or make sure they’re spending plenty of time in each and every suit.

Some suits, however, do have to be earned with player milestones, or you can buy access to them directly. The game is clever here, because in the training area, you can practice with any available exosuit, unlocked or not. So you can try before you buy, and obviously they’d like you to get hooked.

The game does a great job at giving your character a wonderful supporting cast, which you also learn about via the doled-out data fragments, but that’s all they’re there for. They don’t actively join you in matches, and are mostly there as pillars for the narrative, holding the game up around the gameplay loop.

As for your character… you’re the silent protagonist. Like other games, they make jokes about you being the strong silent type, but it puts you in that weird place of watching a movie while also sort of starring in the movie. And while character creation is nice, it’s limited in body types, and it feels like the exosuit call outs don’t respect the “masculine/feminine” option available.

A match commendation? Not bad for a casual player, huh?

I also feel a weird way about their calling the Support/repair exosuit “Witchdoctor“. It’s a term I wish games would get away from, period, since they’re mostly steeped in racist stereotypes. And rather than the exosuits feeling gender-neutral–because they’re non-sentient exosuits, there’s a definite lean-in towards two models being pink and purple. It was giving shades of G1 Transformers “Female Autobots” to me, while the Tank and Assault exosuits were clearly a boys’ club. (The sniper class looks to be more femme coded as well, but it one of the exosuits that you have to earn and/or buy.)

I turned off voice chat, both outgoing and incoming, but I found that the game supplies some auto callouts from other players’ exosuits. So while playing as the support/healing class, I was getting automated messages of “thanks” or “I needed that” from the other exosuits, each in their own voice style. So that was at least nice and a lot easier to deal with than probably being shouted at by randos that they needed healing.

Cross platform play, so far, isn’t possible beyond being matched up with players from other platforms. If all of your friends are on the same platform, you can team up, but if not, there’s no way to guarantee that you’ll be put on a team with them.

A game mode that lets you play together with your friends on other platforms is currently under consideration. However, this may take some time, and will be considered for future title updates.

— Capcom, Exoprimal site

I’d watch some gameplay first, and if you have Game Pass, try it out before going all in. Me? I’m gonna keep on playing, one match at a time until I learn more about what’s going on. I confess that this carrot is keeping my interest. One thing I love with games is when the narrative supports the “silly” gameplay. Especially in team shooters, because why are you always on a team in constantly repeating matches where you might see your duplicate on the other team? Clones? Experiment? Mirror universe? Alternate timelines?

At the least, Exoprimal has a slow IV drip of content to hold my attention. Otherwise, earning skins and buying exosuit mods, and fighting dinosaurs is fun, but that doesn’t set it apart from many others in the genre.

It won’t be a forever game, and I’m curious to see what’s in its future as far as content updates. But for something that I can grab four friends and we can all be extremely silly, chaotic and fight dinosaurs while not stressing too much about “beating” the other team? I’m in.

Besides, now I just have to know how the story ends!

The post Exoprimal: First Look, First Thoughts first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

My Little Pony, My Little Pony, ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhhhh… Yeah, it’s been pretty hard to keep the G4 theme song out of my head ever since agreeing to be in this game.

I confess… for a long while, I was a big fan of watching the updated My Little Pony cartoon.

Yes, I called myself the B—Y word, but wow did some parts of the fandom just ruin the heck out of that.

It was one of those modern cartoons written for a younger audience, but still with an eye towards teaching good lessons to an audience whose brains were quickly maturing. We all had shows like that, trying to put good messaging into our brains, even if hidden behind off-off-off-Broadway CATS-likes or improbable roller coasters in outer space.

I watched a lot of it in the background, something to have on while working and cleaning. Occasionally paying more attention here and there, and honestly, really loving the music. They did a good job with the songs, even in the Equestria Girls stuff, which was just… odd. Fun, but odd.

“Stealing Thunder,” an Actual Play of Renegade Game Studios’ My Little Pony Roleplaying Game. Wednesdays, July 19 & 26, 5:30pm ET, twitch.tv/ChaoticWholesomePresents

Everything’s coming up Milhouse?

Anyway… if you haven’t figured it out yet, the actual point–sometimes I have them–of this article is to give a heads up about a My Little Pony actual play that I’m in next week! Renegade Game Studios put out a My Little Pony TTRPG and we’re gonna give it a go!

I’ve said, and I maintain that while I am a nerd, picking up new TTRPG systems isn’t always easy for me. I love the role-playing aspect, I love giving a character personality and finding good ways to have them mix with other characters.

But… when it comes to “…select a skill from the 83 possible skills on page 342, while remembering to take appropriate flaws from the table in Appendix B, and assign points from your pool according to your attributes as detailed in Chapter 15…” my eyes start to glaze over.

Requests for new TTRPGs, please: have a quick start guide, have pre-generated characters, and have filled out character sheets for those characters. Even if I can’t figure out everything, I can work from a default ready-made character fairly easily.

For what you might expect to be a more simple system given its origins, the My Little Pony RPG walks that fine line between being easy to learn while also having some complexities up its sleeve. So it’s going to be a game where I will be somewhat prepared to play, but I won’t have any qualms relying on the Game Master to explain whether my character can or can’t do something, and how it works.

Which, I have to say, is why I really like playing with certain groups. My entire recent-years TTRPG experience has been enthusiastically diving in while not knowing all the rules. While also being supported by fellow players and the person running the game to give me room to learn, time to look things up, and generally feel comfortable at the table versus giving up and walking away and feeling like my synapses just ain’t firing.

I’ve played with everyone in this game, save one person. And I have experience of the Game Master from our D&D horror game Godplane. So I at least feel comfortable at the table, even if I don’t know all the rules.

Honestly, I’m not sure anyone can know all the rules for every TTRPG, but if there were ever an all-TTRPG version of Jeopardy!, I’d love to see some folks flex their knowledge.

Keep an eye out on social media for our character art, Pan has done some amazing work turning our descriptions and references into pony profiles, and I can’t wait for you to meet our ponies. I confess I’m still working on a voice and personality for my character, but I may have come up with 3 separate character concepts while holding back to see what others chose so I could pick one that helps to round out the group.

Add a little 🌈MAGIC✨ to your summer with an Actual Play of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #TTRPG by @PlayRenegade! Join @DMJazzyHands @stellarencore @ThatCandaceGirl @urbanbohemian & GM @Kaydamphyr for the Ponyville Bountiful Bouquet Festival July 19th & 26th.🦄🌸💐 pic.twitter.com/Ng9HZjhFMV

— Chaotic Wholesome Presents (@CW_Presents) July 6, 2023

So… yeah, even if I’m not completely prepared for the game, I am enthusiastic and looking forward to having some fun sessions with this crew. I believe this might be the first actual play of the My Little Pony RPG which is kinda cool.

Not that we’re out to set any kind of standard, but even as much as I play and enjoy D&D, it’s great to see different systems get actual plays. I hope you’ll pop by to watch this one–or watch it on YouTube afterwards, I don’t control your schedule!

The post “Stealing Thunder” with the My Little Pony RPG! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

It’s always there. The thought in the back of my mind saying, “Say no. Just say no.” But it quickly gets drowned out by the other thoughts about “opportunity” and “FOMO” and “relevance” and… I never pay attention to it. More and more, I’m trying to listen to it harder. This didn’t start anytime recently, but I saw this post on Instagram recently in the eternal scroll. I’m not following this account, but the algorithm was very much on its game by serving it up to me. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHRISTOPHER 🌱 (@plantkween) The video is mostly about things that aren’t worth your time, things that should be easy to say no to. It is definitely in the same universe as my experience, and it was right on time. I just need to say no to things. It’s less about preserving my peace and more about not feeling overbooked, too busy and generally run down to the point where I can’t even enjoy my downtime. Chatting with a friend this past weekend about just that, the inability to “relax” when I have nothing going on and why that is. Why I threw myself into this massive unforgiving spiral of “busy”. And it was mostly due to the pandemic: being alone with myself and my thoughts. Normally, I could go out and about, not even “scheduling” free time, just having it. I had my day job and my streaming job and the occasional streaming-related events, but at the same time, it was a given that I was leaving the house in the evenings and on the weekends. A given, that is, until suddenly the best practice was to stay inside and find a way to exist in that state. We joked that it was like being on a mission to another planet with our apartments being the spaceship, even though we didn’t know how long the journey would take. But like the first episode of the Twilight Zone, “Where is Everybody?” it caught up with me. Loneliness of a sort, but more just the lack of real-world interaction… with anyone or anything. I live alone, no partner nearby, no pets, no plants, no home business or major hobbies, so it made sense to pass–and fill–the time with “being busy.” That worked, really well, and it seemed to have benefits. Streaming kept me busy, playing TTRPGs kept me busy, appearing on streams and panels kept me busy. For a time it was a lovely cycle that fed into itself. Being a good guest or player on one stream meant someone might invite me to be on another and so on. And it meant that outside of my job, tending to my daily life and a bit of downtime before bed, I was all set for things to occupy my mind. However… it’s been three years, and while the pace wasn’t unsustainable by any means, now that we’re at a point where more and more people have been vaccinated, many people are being a bit more careful, they’re testing and being honest about being sick, not being at home is now more of an option. I’m still wary of heading to a crowded dancefloor, but deciding to post up at a table by myself for brunch or hanging out with friends for a drink feels comfortable and nice. Which makes me turn to look back at the asks. Many of them are good asks for fun stuff, some of them are even paid. And because of the past three years, my immediate inclination is to say yes and deal with the scheduling and consequences later. And there’s just something about that video (and prior conversations with friends) that made me realize, “Or… I could just say no.” A big part of it is respect. Respecting my time, respecting my rates, respecting my other obligations. Many of the asks overlap with my working hours, or they happen on the same day I would normally stream, or gods forbid, they take place during weekend brunch hours, which–let’s be real–is just rude. In the streaming space, there seems to be this pervading thought that creators and streamers are “always available”. Or that streaming is their only job/responsibility, so it’s easy to change their schedule for something else going on. Whether that’s appearing on a streamed event or sometimes being asked to travel someplace in person. And–to be honest–it’s a myth that creators also feed into because the hustle & grind mentality is real, and even if what you’re being asked doesn’t pay anything, sometimes even just appearing in places helps build your profile and your brand. So… you say yes. Of course you do. Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay But… what if I say no instead? And we’re all familiar with the phrase, “No is a complete sentence.” however actually doing that? That’s gonna be tough. I’m a pleaser. Even if there’s no possible way I could participate in something, I would still want to give the over-the-top detailed refusal so that I stay in their good graces and leave the door open for another ask in the future. But lemme say no regardless and see how that feels. No: because I’m working, because I’m streaming, because I’m busy, and most importantly because I’m none of those things, but I just wanna sit on my ass, have snacks, watch TV and play games without having thoughts of, “But I could be working on [xyz] right now.” Heck, I might even go outside if this insufferable summer heat lets up for a little while, who knows? Now… there are going to be some posts coming up of stuff I’m doing, and I already feel a little weird writing and ranting about this now, knowing I’m about to post more, “Come watch me here!” articles, but I guess I have to wean off of it versus going cold turkey. It’s a process and a work in progress. And I guess I’m finally ready to start that work on freeing myself a little bit. The post On Coming to Terms with Saying “No.” first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

In these social media times of, “So… where are we all hanging out?” I figured I had best dust off ye olde blogge and post about upcoming things I’m doing. Like being in an Adventuring with Pride one-shot next week! I keep a running document of my panels, appearances, one-shots, articles, special events, etc. but a lot of that also contains NDA stuff, or things I’ve applied and am hopeful for, but that might not happen. So I need to be better about having stuff here, and it is nice not to let this space suffer from neglect. I’m not going to be a media “notable” anytime soon, but when people look up urbanbohemian, it’s cool that this site is (hopefully) in the top results. So… this coming Tuesday, July 11th, I’ll be bringing my Dragonborn College of Lore Bard Sylvester to the D&D virtual table as we play a one-shot from Adventuring with Pride to benefit Stream for a Cause as part of Gayming Magazine’s DIGIPRIDE! Gayming Magazine presents a charity one-shot for Gayming Digipride. “Adventuring with Pride” benefitting Stream for a Cause. With Eugenio in the DM‘s chair, myself, Sam, Pher and Fluffy! I have it on good authority that a few players are taking up classes or races from the supplement, so I can’t wait to see what kind of party we end up with, or what kind of adventure it’s going to be. The last time I played something from the supplement it was “High Stakes” involving an all-expenses paid getaway, a mystery, and a delightful sprinkling of queer references throughout. I love bringing Sylvester to any adventure I possibly can. I created them to be as extra as possible while still being a fairly run of the mill (to me) class and subclass with a focus on a primarily social character. He’s been sort of across the multiverse of D&D one-shots here and there. I don’t know what I’d do if this character were in any one game for more than two sessions. I might have to actually give him character development. But this sparkly quadruple threat (actor, singer, dancer, adventurer) has served me well and can generally fit in with any party, but if it’s going to be combat heavy or a meatgrinder, I’ll probably pass. Sylvester is a talker, not a fighter. In one one-shot, he defused the BBEG’s plan with a clever use of Enthrall and some fast talking while his party members were grabbing the MacGuffin before we got the heck out of there. With this table of players and DM, I’m expecting a wonderful time with lots of laughs, so I hope you’ll hang out too and share in the fun! And as for the bird, elephant, sky, spool, etc. in the room… I am doing my best to be on all the new social media sites, but it’s a LOT to keep up with and frankly, it’s kind of exhausting. I can’t imagine what social media managers are going through right now. Twitter was very much my go-to, it was my “muscle memory” for social media, and now it’s being broken possibly beyond all repair. I don’t want to become akin to a spammer, posting the same thoughts, links and updates to every site, but as much as it was social, it was also media. Creatives were able to get their work out there, their links posted, it sort of built a mini online resume of who and what we were all about. And now to find that, people are going to have to search across whichever site someone might be on, and hope that they have access. It’s a mess. So I’ll keep posting my stuff here, and linking to it there (and there, and there, and there, and… there), and hoping that works. Have a great weekend, everyone! The post We’re Adventuring with Pride for DIGIPRIDE 2023! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

On a recent Twitch stream, I was playing Placid Plastic Duck Simulator and talking about whatever came to mind, as I do, and two ducks passing by each other reminded me of a Star Trek moment because of course it did.

My friend Val, who just happens to be a recently published author, was in chat and it’s their first time watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and the topic of what exactly Q wants from Picard came up and I had fun little ramble about it.

[As a “fireworks” duck got closer to a “sparkler” duck…]

Oh, so close! 

It’s very similar to… you know Q in “All Good Things,” when he talks about the protoplasm that was going to be humans and he’s saying, “Closer, and closer, and closer… Oh, they didn’t do it.”

Q in my opinion absolutely wants to bone Picard, and I mean boning in a “literary” sense where he just wants Picard to say that he likes him and admit that he’s kind of right sometimes.

But also bone him.

And the way that you know he wants to bone him is that he doesn’t use his powers to convince him of anything. He doesn’t use his powers to basically just make him do it, you know?

What I do find funny is that Q has never used his powers to just force people to do stuff, with the exception of giving Data the ability to laugh for a second. He’s never used his powers to influence minds and I’m guessing that’s because he probably finds that boring. Like it’s more fun to play with people and see what they do versus just making them do what you want.

Although, I’m sure that he had a youthful state where he did make everybody do what he wanted and he was like, “Okay this is boring.”

But yeah he absolutely does [want to bone Picard]. He wants the crew and Picard, especially, to admit that we’re friends, admit that you like me, and admit that sometimes I’m kind of right.

And then we can bone.

I know [spacevalkyries] is not watching Star Trek: Picard yet, and when you do there is an entire… well… Q does get involved in Star Trek: Picard, and there is a very tender moment when Q essentially says, “You’re my friend. And I am trying to, in my own weird way, take care of you.” 

And it is very emotionally compromising to the tear ducts.

But yeah Q is that friend that does not understa– Q is that friend that a lot of friend groups have that doesn’t understand how to be friends but really, really wants to be friends. 

And sometimes you can take that person aside and you can say, “Too much. Dial it down.” And sometimes you can’t, and then you just get annoyed every time that person shows up.

And that is how Q really comes across to me. It’s like he doesn’t understand how to engage with people, and he keeps trying and people are just like, “Ok, oh fuck, it’s him again.” 

And Q really doesn’t understand it because he has expanded perceptions and senses and abilities. And you know essentially when you’re somebody who can see and know all the secrets of the universe? Something as simple as “Wait, how do you make friends?” has got to be both  unfathomable to you and also infinitely frustrating.

You know, when you just show up and do what you want and everyone just says, “Fine, ugh!” And then you decide, “Wait, I actually kind of want people to think I’m okay,” and they don’t.

It’s got to be frustrating. 

So Q’s answer is: well I’m just going to show up and cause more havoc.

That’s not the answer, Q. Not the answer, nope not at all. Nope.

So, yeah, it’s an interesting thing. And they do touch on that, and as a first-time viewer, you’re picking that up exactly right.

Because even the very first time they encountered Q was “Encounter at Farpoint” and the entire time Q is saying, “Hey. Hey. This entire star base…” or I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t really a star base, I can’t remember what exactly they called it but it was a base of some kind floating in space.

The entire time Q was sitting there like, “Hey. Hey. This base? Is actually a captured alien, and I’m not going to tell you that, but I want you to figure it out. And I’m going to be really annoying until you do. But I’m not going to tell you. I’m just gonna keep nudging at you until you figure it out. And I’m gonna pretend like I’m gonna kill you if you don’t figure it out, but you’re gonna figure it out, and I know you’re gonna figure it out because I can probably see through time and know that that’s going to happen but until you do I’m going to be really fucking annoying about it.”

I sometimes say that I shouldn’t be allowed to say whatever comes to mind on the internet, but I’m ok with this ramble. I hope everyone has a wonderful First Contact Day, regardless of which universe you’re in.

Happy #FirstContactDay, no matter which side of the mirror you reflect upon. #StarTrek #LLAP 🖖🏿😏 pic.twitter.com/dVtKMURtkW

— Brian Gray 🪩🥂💖 (@urbanbohemian) April 5, 2023

Live long and prosper, everyone!

The post Happy Star Trek First Contact Day! Let’s Talk About Q first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

Recently, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) invited creators to a Creator Summit, which feels like a huge deal in and of itself. To be invited, that they’re opening their doors (even in a limited fashion), and want to showcase what’s going on with people who create content with their products and IP.

Naturally, once word of this got out, TTRPG Twitter proceeded to consume itself.

Wizards has made some pretty bad choices lately, so people are still feeling the sting of that, but it also seemed to spread to the inevitable, “Why were they invited and not me/others?” that every opportunity seems to have. Normal feelings, but it really got out of hand. I’m not even going to get into the “clout chaser” discussion because by now it’s been done to death and I’m honestly tired of it, even the jokes.

What got to me, and what it felt like no one was discussing, was the main details of the event. It’s taking place in Washington (state), on a Monday. WotC is covering travel and accommodations and a per diem for attendees, which is wonderful, but still doesn’t address the fact that it’s taking place on a workday.

One thing that's really frustrating around the creator invites to these events is… what feels like a lack of respect for our time and most especially our responsibilities. "We're pleased to invite you to [EVENT] taking place [IN A MONTH] on [A WEEKDAY]." I… have a job. 🙃

— Brian Gray 🪩🥂💖 (@urbanbohemian) March 14, 2023

The tweet that started it all.

WotC isn’t the only recent invitation like this I’ve gotten (though it’s probably the only one people care about) but St. Jude also invited me and other creators to a summit taking place over multiple weekdays, and it’s just this idea that creators can pick up and leave at the drop of a hat to appear in person someplace that bothers me. As if we don’t have any other responsibilities to contend with.

Entire thread broken out with more of my thoughts below.

One thing that’s really frustrating around the creator invites to these events is… what feels like a lack of respect for our time and most especially our responsibilities.

“We’re pleased to invite you to [EVENT] taking place [IN A MONTH] on [A WEEKDAY].”

I… have a job.

Which, it feels like a lot of places don’t bother to consider that in the first place, asking if we’re available to hop on a call or co-stream an event taking place in the middle of the day.

Maybe I need a “Part-Time Streamer” sign taped to my forehead ‘cos this can’t work.

I do my absolute best to be a professional in my creative work and treat others in kind. I understand that work hours are work hours for everyone, but there’s this very pervasive idea that content creators, influencers and streamers are always available in a way that just doesn’t make sense. Many of us maintain streaming schedules and are public about our appearances and events, and often just about what’s happening in our lives.

It should be clear when content creation is our full-time vs. not, and even so, the logical assumption that we’re human beings who have lives outside of appearing on screen seems to be missing more often than not.

I appreciate that the hosts will cover or reimburse travel, accommodations and meals, but what about the rest of it?

Is my PTO (assuming I even have any available) worth appearing at this event and not getting paid for my time? Which is likely to be used for their marketing.

I get that they’re a company too, so in most cases weekdays are work days for them too. But that’s the thing: weekdays are work days.

For most creator events and conventions, we can schedule weekend time to participate and in most cases not have it affect too much else.

But an event taking place over one or more weekdays, plus travel days… no matter how much of the base cost is covered means I’m missing work at the very least.

If I had pets, family, or someone else to look after… what about them?

I know. It means I can’t go. I often don’t.

For these two particular events, the hosts are covering travel, which is great. Let me be clear: that part is amazing. It removes a major barrier to access these events and opportunities because many creators cannot afford to spend the money to travel and stay over.

However, choosing to have these events on one or more non-weekend days adds new complications into the mix. Not that weekends are perfect for everyone, but they are generally understood that people are more likely to have flexibility than on a random Tuesday.

What’s interesting about the WotC Creator Summit is they mentioned, “In December of 2022, our team had the opportunity to attend PAX Unplugged and interact with tons of members of the TTRPG creator community.” Which means they understand the accessibility that can be baked into an existing event weekend.

It means that I try to sneak in a meeting on my “lunch break” or tell work I had to “run an errand” to take a quick call, or make up hours before/after shift because a 1-2 hr event is actually taking place in the city where I live. (I’m fortunate enough to have 100% WFH.)

After getting the 3rd creator summit/event invite (I’m not sure which one you think I was talking about) in the past few weeks taking place just about one month out, on a weekday, I’m just like… can y’all not?

Maybe arrange these events around conventions? Or just… weekends.

Going back to the “always available” assumption. I always assume that if it’s between the hours of 7am and 6pm in someone’s time zone, they’re busy. Maybe that’s a bad assumption, because it stems from my being busy during the work day. But most people understand when I tell them that my availability starts roughly one hours after I’m done work for the day, and that if we’re meeting anytime before my work day is over, I am going to be distracted by work.

Working from home has allowed me to squeeze in more creative work, but my day job is always the priority. The thing that pays the bills, provides some measure of health care, keeps me fed, etc. will, with very few exceptions, be the thing that ranks #1 over everything else.

Is this is just “responsible adult grousing” about my no longer being able to pretend I’m auditioning for an MTV reality show in the 90s and can just leave behind all of my responsibilities at the drop of a hat to go live with strangers in a house or an RV for 6-8 weeks.

Maybe.

Oddly enough, I did respond to casting calls for MTV reality shows back in the day, the first time I wasn’t willing or able to make the time commitment for filming. The second time, I was too old. I mean I’m sure it would have been a time thing too, but just… oof, y’know?

But sometimes I do have to vent about how this “creator/influencer” life is all about “opportunities” and how we’re made to feel that if we don’t do everything to be in the room and get face time and make ourselves available, that we’re just not serious about it.

It’s messed up.

Do I want to go these events and summits? Do I want to see others in my industry and space and finally get face-time with my peers? Do I have *massive* FOMO for missing out on them? Yep, I sure do.

It’s interesting that we try to compartmentalize this under “fear of missing out,” when it’s a legitimate concern that if we aren’t in the room, shaking the hands, making the introductions, etc. that we don’t exist, or at least have to work even harder to make sure people know we exist.

There may be FOMO for not getting to see cool things, or have a company invite me out, or get swag, but mainly it’s that we can’t drop everything to hop on a plane for the access.

But I also wish more were held virtually, or at least more conveniently.

I’ll happily come for a weekend day or whole weekend, hang out, learn about your product, plans and programs. Especially at an already scheduled con. But you decide have to that with barely one month’s notice on a Monday? A Wednesday?

That ain’t gonna work for me. Sorry, and it sucks.

The WotC Creator Summit will have a virtual version, so creators who can’t make it aren’t going to totally miss out, however the virtual event is still scheduled as an all-day thing, on the same day. That’s not really better, but it’s something. For me, it sort of relegates this event to the same kind of background noise that I’d put on during the day while I’m working. It’s not going to be an event I can fully focus on, but at least I can experience it in some way.

At the end of the day, I don’t have a solution for this, or my solution isn’t very satisfying. I get invited to these amazing opportunities, I have to weigh the pros and cons of going or not, and usually I don’t go. That’s it. As I said, it sucks, but that’s life. I have to hope that I can focus on the creative side of my life while still balancing the responsibilities that keep a roof over my head. I’m sure I’m not alone in that, but what can you do?

The post This Creator (Summit) Life first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

I’m sorry. It’s true. This is the final entry in the First Time DM Diaries because… I’m no longer a first-timer! I had my trial by fire in a streamed actual play charity one-shot with a homebrew adventure. And may I just say… going forward I may never advise anyone else that all of those elements combined should be their very first time solo in the DM seat.

Let me be clear, the game was an absolute delight, we had a lot of laughs, there was wonderful reaction from the viewers, we raised over $2,000 for The Trevor Project, and barring some mild technical difficulties on both my and the producer’s ends, it all went off without too many hitches. Success, job well done, pat myself on the back, etc.

Gilded Gals – a Charity One-Shot for Kobold Press to Benefit The Trevor Project

I will forever live in that “They said they had a good time, but did they, really?” place of insecurity and impostor syndrome, but I also have to admit that at the least, I’m pretty good at being an impostor and had them all fooled. I HAD EVERYONE FOOLED!

To quickly recap my earlier entry, the Gilded Gals game came about from a stray idea during a PAX Unplugged panel for getting some “old biddy” characters together for a one-shot, they asked me to run it, I said yes despite my inexperience, and again, I have to say, we had a blast!

I wrote up an adventure that had elements of classic sitcom situations, a bit of Willy Wonka, a nod to other older women TV characters (Jessica Fletcher, Hyacinth Bucket, Enda Garrett, Pearl Shay), and general nonsense along the way. Having shown my outline to some writer friends, I was told that I wrote too much, which is the right amount for me, to be honest.

I didn’t make it too complicated in terms of puzzles or combat, and I was terrified we wouldn’t get to do everything I wrote–we didn’t. However, I knew that no matter what, whether I had them on rails or whether I leaned back and let them improv their way into the plot, it would all work out.

And it did! We had it set in The Old Margreve Forest in a sort of retirement community (think Shady Pines), and since I could craft the adventure for these characters, it was really focused on what they said and did to shape the world around the story I planned to tell. As I said, we didn’t get to every part of the adventure that I planned but that was due to both good and bad things…

A frozen moment of peace, early on, before the CHAOS.

When you’re streaming, there are so many things that you have no control over. We had a fantastic producer, but sometimes things just happen. In this case Zoom decided to be dramatic and had been having server issues. The internet connection was playing up, and in my case, my internet just said “I would prefer not to.” and dropped mid-show.

Here’s where having a wonderful cast and great producer are really to your benefit. They vamped. They vamped extremely well. I was panicking, sending messages to Discord on my phone, waiting impatiently for the connection to resume and hop back in the call, but my players just handled it, in fact going on to decide how they were going to handle the plot threads I’d given them before my sudden disappearance.

The paraphrased saying, “No good Dungeon Master’s plan survives first contact with the Players,” is all too true. Now add in the blessing and curse of all charity one-shots: donation incentives, and you’ll find that your plan never stood a chance at all. I don’t want to say people were too nice, but we allowed for charitable donations to affect the game vis-à-vis dice rolls, wild magical effects and the one that made me really think on my feet: magic items.

Blue tea?!

Kobold Press was kind enough to provide us with details of their Fantastical Food and Beverages from the Vault of Magic and we set it up that players could roll on a table and that would determine what they got. One item in particular: Blue Rose Tea.

The petals of the Blue Rose can be brewed into a tea. When you consume a dose of this tea, you get a glimpse into the future. This Effect works like the Divination spell, except the answer comes to you in visions rather than from a deity or its servants, and you can ask a single question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity to occur within 14 days.

Nothing could have prepared me the players being able to have doses of a potion that would let them see the future, that I as the DM had to answer truthfully.

“It was at this moment, that he knew… he fucked up.”

If you watch back, you might see the panic on my face while reading the item description, but I managed to give truthful vague answers to the specific questions they asked without giving away anything.

There were still parts of the adventure I wrote that we didn’t get to, and there were other parts I didn’t bother to write except just a big vague concept in brackets because I trust these players. But in the end, I feel like I learned a lot about my style of running a game, handling players and keeping the story going. I tried to give the story that blurred line of a feeling somewhere between 22-minute TV episode and D&D adventure and I think I did OK.

Cast

Agnes Bumbles / Noura

Widdle / Meagan

Lottie Oakfoot / Dot

Mama (Rayanah) / Vee

Crew

Producer / Jordan

A huge thank you to Meagan for asking me, to Vee, Dot, and Noura for trusting I wouldn’t fold under the pressure and to Jordan for running things flawlessly behind the scenes. As much as this is about me and my First Time DM experience, it was a team effort of cast and crew and that can’t be said enough.

Will I do it again? Maybe. No promises, I did have a good time, and we did say, “Hey it would be great to get this crew together again,” so we’ll see what happens in future. And as anyone knows, I’ll say yes to just about anything for charity so… who can say?

The post First Time DM: My Final Entry in the Series first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

Destiny 2 is my comfort game. Period. I know a great deal of it–and other games like it–is meant to be played with others, either as a team or pick-up group/matchmaking, but I love logging in, running a few bounties, touching on the current storyline and then I’m out.

It makes it very hard to “schedule” gaming time with other people because it’s the game I play for 15-20 minutes while making coffee and signing into work. I’ll run a quick strike or idly grind a weapon catalyst between work tasks. I’ll usually save long sessions until after work or after dinner, but even those are very much a solo-player experience for me.

Destiny 2 ViDoc: As Light Falls

I was the same way with most of the modern well-known MMORPGs though. City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2*, Anthem**, Elder Scrolls Online and now Destiny 2. As much as it’s the stories that get me into the games, it’s more that they’re well-crafted and well-maintained–for the most part, I mean sometimes Destiny 2 feels like it’s held together with duct tape and hope.

I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to play this way, and while games designed to be a single-player experience are wonderful, you often have to worry about replayability, whereas MMOs usually have an ongoing stream of new or changing content, even if it’s set against the same world and repetitive activities.

I don’t pretend that I’m doing anything new or innovative when I transmat into the EDZ in Destiny 2 and defeat countless Cabal and Fallen when “The enemy is moving against each other…” Or that I expect anything to change outside of scheduled content updates or expansions, but it’s still my comfort game, and the thing with comfort media is I really do tend to enjoy it more on my own than with others.

My wee baby Exo Warlock Guardian

One of the best things about these games is that we all play them in our own way, but that can also be hard when my near-thousands of hours playing a game means I’m not a newbie, I’ve already gotten good, and often I’m just vibing, running through missions on muscle memory and reflex and not stressing if I fall off a ledge or get crushed by an incoming drop pod.

Still, if I label myself as a casual, people think I don’t know what I’m doing or need advice. If I call myself an “expert,” people want the carry, which I’m like… sure, except I probably already got all my objectives done earlier in short bursts, and if I’m not trying to stream the content, I often finish the new main story in a few days.

All this to say that I do feel bad when we can’t defeat the “schedule monster” and make time to play the newest or most fun multiplayer games, but that it also doesn’t stop me from playing them by myself, or occasionally with strangers who I never talk to.

My gaming time is my comfort time, even as a streamer, I really enjoy playing games for myself and not for the consumption of others. And more often than not, I’m going to pick the huge sandbox worlds with online capabilities that let me feel like a badass (in between managing my Animal Crossing island, obviously).

When Lightfall, the new content expansion, drops at the end of this month, I look forward to playing and chatting with my fellow Guardians about the amazing new neon synthwave environment on Neptune… even if we can’t make time to play together.

* you have to say the whole thing ** oh, they at least tried, didn’t they?

The post Destiny 2 is my Massively Single-Player Online Game first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

Steam Next Fest always feels like one of the best and most frantic times of the year. There are so many demos available to play in a short amount of time and with my limited streaming schedule, it’s hard to know if I’ll be able to play any at all.

This year, however, I got my butt in gear and made time for 5 demos from the many, one might almost say too many, available titles. Since I only stream a few days a week and for limited amounts of time, I did some (very quick) research and found a few helpful articles to narrow it down.

15 game demos to try before Steam Next Fest ends | Polygon

The Best Steam Next Fest Demos To Check Out Right Now | Kotaku

7 Steam Next Fest demos to check out: Meet Your Maker, Afterimage, and more | Digital Trends

15 must-play Steam Next Fest game demos | PC World

Going from these lists and my inbox from folks who reached out, I ended up giving a fair bit of time to: Super Space Club, Dust & Neon, Card Crawl Adventure, Dark Tree and Book of Hours.

Some were hits, some were misses, either due to technical issues, or my needing a little more handholding. Noting that these are demos, not the final product, some glitches are to be expected as well as the developers incorporating feedback into the final release. But overall, I enjoyed what I got to try, even if I couldn’t progress through them all!

Super Space Club

Super Space Club is a lo-fi arcade space shooter to chill to. Defend a vibrant galaxy as a club of misfit heroes and battle endless waves of spacecrafts to the tune of atmospheric beats. Outlast your enemies and vibe to the rhythm of the stars.

This one was a blast to play, pun fully intended. Reminiscent of Asteroids from the arcade days, with a colorful palette and chill beats. I was lucky enough to have the developer in chat to give us some behind the scenes details while also listening to viewer feedback. It’s been a while since I’ve had to remember to use the trigger to advance my ship, normally I just jam it forward on the thumbstick. But the demo gave us a look at multiple characters, each with their own special ship ability, two ship types and two bullet styles along with different kinds of enemy types including a boss which I didn’t quite reach.

This was a fun demo, I have very few notes. I’d love more control over the color schemes and the ability to remap controls, but beyond that short of getting a paddle controller, I just need more practice in space!

Super Space Club

Dust & Neon

Dust & Neon pits a single cowboy against an army of robots in this fast-paced, roguelite action twin-stick shooter, set in a futuristic Wild West.

This setting is already one of my favorite genres: Weird West (also the name of a different video game). I’m not super jazzed about Wild West, even though the movie was hilarious, but if there aren’t aliens, magic or robots, I’m less into it.

Dust & Neon happily fills the top-down, try-try-and-try-again roguelite feeling I’m looking for and also gives Borderlands vibes in both art and tone. You play a cloned cowboy set forth to destroy robots and mechs who have taken over the frontier. It’s absolutely shoot and loot, looking for gear upgrades while managing ammo and health levels.

Each run will net you money, resources and enhancement points to add permanent upgrades to your cowboy before heading out again. This is one genre that Hades really set the bar for when it comes to blending narrative with a roguelite and Dust & Neon is a welcome addition. Learning to aim and shoot, as well as employing cover mechanics was a little finicky for me, but again that’s more me needing practice than anything else.

Dust & Neon

Card Crawl Adventure

Card Crawl Adventure is a single player card game with light deck building and roguelite elements. Engage in a unique path based combat mechanic to battle against devious tavern bosses. Visit a variety of cozy taverns, collect cards and improve your deck with magic equipment items and charms.

I love card-based games, mostly because of the art and any deckbuilding video game reminds me of the collectible card games that I love to play but simply can’t afford to maintain as a hobby. Also: I’m really bad at those types of games because “cards pretty, strategy… eh?” So when I get to play video games with card elements that are easy to follow, even if difficult to master, I’m all in. This was another stream where I was fortunate to have the developer in chat giving pointers and explaining game rules that may not have been as clear. And pointing out things that didn’t quite work right in the demo.

Overall, I’d call it a “pathfinding solitaire” game. Your cards represent attacks and spells, while the Tavern Owner plays cards representing monsters and obstacles. Your path of cards can deal damage and other effects, while the monsters can affect your health, resources and sometimes your cards.

Each Tavern has a different owner, different house rules and different challenges to be met while playing, and while it took me a minute to grasp the elements of gameplay, I’m ready to snag this one when it comes out in a few weeks!

Card Crawl Adventure

Dark Tree

In a world where virtue considered a relic of the past, something is changing. Tormented by omen-dreams six heroes going to the distant kingdom of Hevalos. Fight hordes of enemies and the machinations of fate to uncover the secret of the Dark Tree.

Dark Tree felt like a nice isometric blend of Hades, Diablo, and Vampire Survivors. Unfortunately, I ran into a glitch with the game crashing, but what I’d experienced up to that point revealed a good narrative, selection of quests and interesting gameplay.

Your character “auto fires” a standard attack at enemies, with the ability to focus on a target, while also having additional special attacks. Resources dropped allow you to upgrade abilities, the less damage you take, the better the drops. As I was getting into the story, I ended up dying on a level and at that point, I wasn’t able to exit back out or reset my progress, so I moved on to another game.

I’ll revisit Dark Tree to see if a future patch works out the issues. The art is gorgeous and it hinted at a rich story, so I look forward to giving it another try.

Dark Tree

Book of Hours

Restore a crumbling occult library by a winter sea. Build the world’s foremost collection of grimoires and arcana. Master the invisible arts. BOOK OF HOURS is a narrative crafting RPG set in a 1930s world of hidden gods and secret histories. What sort of Librarian will you choose to be?

This was another one where I ran into a wall, not because the game glitched, but I simply couldn’t figure out how to progress. My character crash landed on a beach with few possessions and I needed to get to shelter. But with all the options available to me, I could not sort it out for the life of me, or my character.

The game has a gorgeous look, it looks to be detailed in a way that I mostly associate with Disco Elysium, using cards to represent aspects of yourself and the world around you. It also had an extensive system of magic, that you would eventually determine your own path through.

It is a small team, and they did advise that the demo might be a janky build, but I was stumped. Popping over to their community page on Steam showed that I wasn’t alone and that others also needed a bit of a tutorial to get through the opening, so I’m hoping they take that feedback to heart and the next version is a little easier for onboarding new players.

Book of Hours

Overall, I’m happy with the amount of games I did get in. As of the time of writing, I’m afraid I’ve missed my chance to try others offline, though some games are leaving their demos available for a little bit longer. Hopefully for the next Steam Next Fest, I can get a better head start and plan to showcase others, but since I usually don’t switch games during stream, I’m pleased enough that I could manage to jump from game to game after 30-60 minutes.

And again, these were demos, not final releases. So running into issues with optimization, unforeseen crashes or errors, or simply that the game may have not come across to the player in the same way that it did the developer… all of that was to be expected. All of the above games are on my radar (and my wishlist) and I look forward to all of them announcing release dates.

Here’s to Steam Next Fest for letting me give these titles and try and I look forward to the next one!

The post My Steam Next Fest 2023 Wrap-Up! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

As you may know by now, I had my first time sitting in the D&D Dungeon Master seat when I shared it with DMJazzyHands / Eugenio Vargas as Co-DMs for Rivals of Waterdeep. I wrote a whole series of posts about it! It was fun, it was nerve-wracking, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to handle the reins on my own.

However, it’s 2023 and I’d been thinking about what kinds of different content I wanted to try on my or other channels, and in a group message with friends, I said that I was putting testing out Twitch Guest Star on my radar with an eye towards hosting others on my channel and maybe running a TTRPG game. Maybe.

Give it a Shot! Tips & Tricks for Memorable TTRPG One-Shots

And when I say, be careful what you wish for, I mean it. Whispered words into the universe occasionally have an effect, or… it was just a massive coincidence which resulted in a Twitter direct message shortly afterwards of someone asking if I would be willing to DM for a one-shot. Cut to me sweating, typing, deleting, re-typing and eventually saying, “Sure, what the heck, let’s do this!” before I could over-think it anymore.

To give a little background, when I was a panel about tips for memorable TTRPG one-shots at PAX Unplugged, a few of the panelists discussed giving their characters accents and affectations which led to an idea of some of them bringing their “old lady” characters to a game together. A hilarious idea that wasn’t that far out of scope considering the talent on the panel.

I just didn’t think it would happen with me in the DM seat! But it is happening. In 9 days.

Join us on Twitch on January 29th at 10:30am PT for a charity event raising money for @TrevorProject!@urbanbohemian leads the Gilden Gals through a Golden Girls-themed one-shot! Tune in live to donate consumables from Vault of Magic to the party! ➡️: https://t.co/rqj8YjtWPt pic.twitter.com/OJYMZLlPOy

— Kobold Press (@KoboldPress) January 19, 2023

Did I mention that I’ve never really run anything on my own before? Also that since it’s a Golden Girls-themed one-shot, I am sort of homebrewing the adventure? So many firsts for me. A lot of nerves, not gonna lie. For those who have said they’re looking forward to it, and told me I’m gonna be great, I really do appreciate it. Now I just have to let myself hear that and internalize it.

I’ve reached out to some friends to look over my ideas. I’ve got a story in mind, but I need to refine it, because as you may have also seen, I over-write. We have about 2 ½ hours for the game, and we’ll be allowing charitable donations to give magical food & drink items to the players, so I am definitely going to have to ways to scoot them along to the final set pieces.

Gilded Gals, a Golden Girls-inspired one-shot taking place on Kobold Press’ Twitch channel benefitting The Trevor Project

At worst, I’m going to have four very talented players bringing their amazing characters to life and I’ll just watch them improv for 2 hours. Which, sarcastically, would be the worst.

I am using writing this blog post as a means to distract me from the stress and anxiety of refining the one-shot, but I’ll get back to it today and while I think it’s strong enough now for me to start cutting bits that might run long, or add threads just in case the collective cast (myself included) runs into an utter lack of inspiration… I also need to make it more D&D’ish. I’m pretty good at coming up with an idea and fleshing it into a story, but I need to make it playable.

Non-Player Characters (NPCs) need stat blocks. Player Characters need things to do that might require actions and skill checks. Locations need descriptions. The plot needs hooks, the adventure needs some sort of stakes. If there’s going to be combat or something using combat mechanics, I need to come up with an encounter. I need to give my NPCs personalities, regardless of whether I do voices for them or not. And because I know that I over-write things, I need to figure out what and where to cut so that I can give the players room to vamp while still allowing me to get them where I’d like them to be. (And now I need to take a deep breath to calm down after realizing what I still need to work on.)

I probably still won’t feel ready until about 15 minutes after we go live, but I am looking forward to it. If I have fun, maybe I’ll do it again. If I don’t have fun, then I’ll remain secure in the knowledge that I enjoy TTRPGs better as a player than as a dungeon master. Either way, it’s going to be a ridiculous time for a great cause and I hope to see folks hanging out in chat!

The post First Time DM: Careful What You Wish For! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

I don’t have any particular resolution to use this blog more in 2023, but I am trying to lean into the idea that I can write whatever here, long- or short-form, and it’s not subject to anyone’s whims except my own.

By the by, if any millionaires out there are looking to buy a website, make me an offer. I’m easy, but I’m not cheap.

I didn’t make it out of bed to stream on New Year’s Day, but I did rally to hang out with a friend and we took a long walk on The National Mall because the weather was simply gorgeous, and we hadn’t been there in a while.

We had a good walk, and great conversation, just talking about whatever came to mind, how we think the year is going to go and just enjoying the sunshine, the monuments, and popping in on Einstein before heading home. We also passed by the National Christmas Tree and ducked into the Willard InterContinental because it’s always properly decked out for the holidays.

I’m not sure what kind of winter weather we’re going to get, so taking advantage of 60s and sunny outside was a great way to start 2023.

Also: Punch Buggy! Blue! I called it first.

The post New Year’s Day? Let’s Go to The Mall! first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

I’ve said before that I don’t really do the end-of-year introspection posts, but I do keep track of what I do, and 2022 was a pretty good and busy year! I went back and took a look at who all I worked with and decided to go a little old school and make a word cloud (or tag cloud or wordle, what have you) of the Twitter handles I got to share space with, virtually or in-person.

I don't often get caught up in "end of year introspection" but I was looking at my "Panels, Articles, Appearances" google doc and I had over 52 things going on in 2022. Panels, actual plays, articles, interviews, activations, like… booked and busy, nice! https://t.co/9LT73DtXOW

— Brian Gray 🪩🥂💖 (@urbanbohemian) December 30, 2022

It’s weighted a little bit towards people I spent more time with on-screen. My Rivals of Waterdeep cast mates, some content creators I did repeated events with and the longer running TTRPG series I did: Godplane and Hunger of the Far Realm, but everyone that I could find (and remember) from 2022 is in there.

A Word Cloud is still a thing, right?

I like having a document, albeit a simple one, that lists what I did, when, with whom and if there were tweets, videos or promotional images made. I haven’t taken the time to turn that into an online resume, but it probably wouldn’t be too difficult, right?

And it is nice to go through each year and see what kinds of things I’ve done, and reflect on whether they were good or fair experiences.

To my #TTRPG fam, I am grateful for everyone I got to share a table with in 2022, in-person or virtual. Being able to return to the tabletop gaming space in 2020 has enriched me. And if we didn't get to share a table, but have always wanted to? Maybe 2023 is our year! 🎲🤞🏿💖

— Brian Gray 🪩🥂💖 (@urbanbohemian) January 1, 2023

The idea grew out of the above tweet. There’s no way I can tag everyone on Twitter, but I hope people will take a look, see their name, and remember the fun time we had whether it was an interview, a one-shot, a podcast, a panel, a mini-series or long-running actual play!

And as much as I am taking a proper break now, I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things and work with folks again, old names and new! Let’s see what this year brings!

The post Wrapping Up My 2022 in a Word Cloud first appeared on urbanbohemian.

[urban-bohemian]

No-Frills Roast Chicken with Some Frills, https://urbanbohemian.com/2022/05/03/urbs-roast-chicken/

[urban-bohemian]

First Time DM: Episode Three. Someone Else’s Shoes!, https://urbanbohemian.com/2021/10/30/first-time-dm-episode-three/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-time-dm-episode-three

[urban-bohemian]

First Time DM: Episode Two. Best Laid Plans…, https://urbanbohemian.com/2021/10/21/first-time-dm-episode-two/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-time-dm-episode-two