Your D&D Game Probably Isn’t Weird Enough, and other thoughts ► Ludology Now!

I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs on and off since I was roughly sixteen years old. Even so, I was never one of those people who felt comfortable just playing D&D with a bunch of strangers. I’ve never been to a gaming store and joined a session with people at a table. All of my tabletop roleplay experience has been with friends, usually close friends. That’s because when we play, our games are weird.

I don’t mean “weird” as in “gross” or “perverted”, I just mean “weird” in the sense that anything and everything could happen. Ostensibly, this is the point of D&D in the first place. However, over the years I have definitely noticed that some groups have a tendency to lean way too hard (for me, at least) into the “rules as written” aspect. The dungeon must be constructed exactly as it appears in the book. The enemy has exactly these attacks. The secret passage is only opened in this one way.

To me, this kind of thinking is ignoring all of the aspects of tabletop roleplaying which make them worth playing. Following a D&D campaign exactly as written feels like playing Final Fantasy XIII…

Sigh. I’m sure some people like playing this way. It’s fine, I guess. It’s just not for me.

Let’s try again.

Night Manor Review ► Ludology Now!

This year, when I don’t have a topic readily available or anything of importance to discuss, I’d like to take the time to provide reviews of all of my favorite games from UFO 50, 2024’s Game of the Year That Wasn’t. I won’t be discussing every game, because like all large publisher libraries there are certain titles that just didn’t click for me, but there are definitely a few that deserve to be highlighted. Night Manor is one of those.

In Night Manor, you are locked in a house with a Jason-like killer and must find a way…

The thing is, the killer is always on the move, and you can be cornered in multiple locations throughout the house. This effectively translates jumpscares and minigames into what is otherwise a fairly standard point-and-click adventure game, and it’s excellent because on top of that, Night Manor also…

Pfft.

Starship Typing Post-Mortem ► Ludology Now!

Last year, I made a game called Spaceship Typing to teach my son how to use a keyboard. He really enjoys it, and I’ve gotten some great feedback from other parents who have shared it with their kids. Today, I wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into how I coded the game (badly), how I created the animations for the game (poorly), and how I tested the game (but still missed out on some major bugs that other people had to point out).

My most egregious mistake was using regular ol’ Notepad instead of a coding software when I first started fiddling around with ideas for this game. I use Sublime Text now, and it’s SO MUCH BETTER for keeping track of where everything is. The thing that I do like about Notepad…

Does anyone care about that?

Games I Would Like To Play That Don’t Exist Yet ► Ludology Now!

It’s weird we don’t have any of the following:

More (any?) games about being a lifeguard
Games that teach you (or simulate) complex magic tricks
More fighting + adventure games like Mortal Kombat: Deception’s Konquest Mode.
Literally any Stephen King-licensed game IP (I’ve heard he hates them, and he’s never responded to my emails questioning that. I did reach out a few times over the years because I think a video game based on The Stand would do gangbusters.)
Other genre mashups such as “rougelike 3D platformer” or “RTS detective game” or “puzzle-based battle royale RPG”.
Games set during the Age of Sail, specifically from 1792 – 1830, on the ocean, with a fully explorable ship, full crew that must be taken care of (not unlike The Alters, but without the AI slop – yeah, I’m marking my grade down from last week’s positive review after finding that garbage hidden in the flavor text – but with more delegation to other members of the crew). Perhaps this is a single-player “open world” game that changes over the course of the story, where the player begins as a young midshipman but over the course of the entire game they become a Lieutenant, Captain, Commodore, Lord, and eventually Admiral, with different ships and crew each time. Players will be able to fully explore the ocean outside of missions and can encounter rivals seafaring nations (the wars between England and France will play a big role in the conflict at sea in this game) and can also land on islands to search for supplies and perform ship repairs. All aspects of seafaring life in the Age of Sail should be represented, even the uncomfortable ones.
Well that’s brought us down a bit. You know what else depresses me?

Mortal Kombat 1’s DLC Makes Me Sad ► Ludology Now!

I dunno, Warner Bros. just announced they’re spending like 66% less on games, might be time for NetherRealm to pull a Midway Part 2 and Down+Up away.

That’s a Raiden joke.

Recapture The Matrix: A Video Game ► Ludology Now!

Alright, I’ve held off long enough. Let’s talk about what the ultimate The Matrix video game could look like. We’re going to be taking ideas from The Matrix Online, Enter The Matrix, and The Matrix: Path of Neo, while also adding in some concepts from The Matrix: Resurrections, to create the perfect experience for long-time Matrix fans.

This story takes place 120 years after The Matrix Resurrections, and considers all previous official Matrix media canon. For me, I’ve been working on this idea on and off for over two decades, but pre-production officially started in 2023 (hence the date on the image above).

We shall consider The Matrix Revolutions ending as the new Year 0 on our timeline. True history starts when Neo rejects the path of the One for Trinity. Considering this, we can safely say that the ending of The Matrix Resurrections is in Year 60. This makes Recapture The Matrix take place in year 180 AN (after Neo).

If the first Matrix movie was (as we think) the 7th version of The Matrix, then The Matrix Resurrection shows the 8th. The ending of that film clearly alludes to both Trinity and Neo remaking The Matrix into their own creation, so that would make this new version – a combination of the changes they were able to implement, along with some resistance from the remaining violent machines – the 9th.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The rest of this article has been removed due to the author becoming nervous someone would steal his idea and make Recapture The Matrix before he gets a chance to. No amount of common sense would convince him otherwise. The author has since disappeared and will not return our phone calls. The future of Ludology Now! is uncertain.]

THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDED MEDIA:

The Bear Season 4 is available now on Hulu. I was a professional chef for nearly two decades. I’ve worked in kitchens of all shapes, sizes, and locations. I’ve cooked in fast food, family-owned, corporate, production, and catering kitchens. I’ve fed A-list actors, brides and grooms, and secret restaurant reviewers. The Bear is the most accurate show about cooking that exists. Cooking is a game. It’s about time management, about inventory sorting, about excellence. You start with no levels, no skills. You upgrade your equipment as you get better. Sometimes, if you run out of something you know you’ll need in a few hours, you have to go on an emergency quest to obtain it. Sometimes, you need to quit playing. Watch The Bear.