Ninchilla

That's really impressive. Well done him!

I, too, received my Rapscallion stuff yesterday […] (I also need to figure out where it can go on my shelves.)

Mine's gone under "R".

Was it just you running D&D club, Bri? The thought of running for six would give me pause, but more than that and I'd likely nope out.

Read
Rapscallion arrived yesterday, so I've been looking at that a bit. I like the idea of PbtA games, but some end up going a bit too granular on the use of Moves (looking at you, Root). This seems pretty solid so far, though.

I'm idly prepping some of the Alien modules, which I really want to test-run once I get the the Evolved Edition rules. I'm close to giving up hope for an IRL The One Ring Campaign.

Play
I'm onto character #3 for Descent Into Avernus, after my neutral evil goblin rogue revealed his true allegiance to the Cult of the Dragon and turned on the party. So now it's lawful good paladin time! That'll be fine in hell, right..?

GM
D&D scheduling continues to be pretty bad - we've only managed 3 sessions this year so far, between health issues, people travelling, and car problems. Hoping it improves soon, because we're just about in the final act now, and I'm really enjoying it.

Another month, another multiplayer shooter beta - this time, looter-shooter ARC Raiders.

Announced something like four years ago with a trailer that's honestly a bit of a banger, it's got bits of that 80s/90s VCR/CRT aesthetic, but set in a world that very closely resembles Destiny's Cosmodrome.

Gameplay is all but lifted from The Division's Dark Zone. Groups of Raiders arrive in an area littered with loot-strewn points of interest and occasional NPC robots (or ARC, as the game insists on calling them). As you wander, you hear the distant rattle (or boom) of gunfire echoing off huge concrete structures, a sound either to be avoided or approached in the hopes of picking off stragglers.

Once you've filled your pockets with whatever bullets and scrap you can find or carry, you head to one of the elevators spread through the zone, and hide or hold off attackers until it arrives and you can get back to the underground city you call home.

I'm still very early - it's still mostly in tutorial mode - but with a group I think this could be a lot of (tense) fun. I'm not sure about lifespan, though - it still hasn't given much of a sense of progression, or any hints that there's real variety beyond the core loop.

Horizon Forbidden West: The Burning Shore

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Still far from 100%, but credits rolled. The story is nonsense and combat isn't much fun, but this honesty might outdo everything else going in terms of exploration. You get a great set of tools to play with, and if there's one complaint, it's that the use cases are too specific - if/when they go back to Tomb Raider, I'd love to see them take a leaf out of Zelda's book, and give you more of a sandbox approach to traversal and puzzle-solving.