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Outer Wilds. Endings of both the main game and the DLC can still get me to tear up a bit. I saw a post somewhere, don't remember, that said something along the lines of "Listening to the Outer Wilds OST is the only way I feel my feelings any more." It's about like that.
Outer Wilds
If you're a naturally curious person, the odds are you will probably enjoy Outer Wilds. No other game I've played has ever had quite the same blend of mystery, conquering the unknown, and semi-realistic space exploration.
Could someone make another game like it? Not impossible, I suppose, but I think you would be hard pressed.
Should you keep playing the original? You really can't, one time through is all you get. Once you have discovered all the secrets and uncovered the mysteries, that is your journey through it. Still fun to visit every once in a while, though
I have not yet played Return of the Obra Dinn, but it is always high up on the list when I look for games like Outer Wilds. I'm a huge fan of Outer Wilds, so maybe the recommendation can work in reverse
From what I have heard, the deduction is not as intense as in Obra Dinn, but there is very little hand holding, and the whole game has been brilliantly designed so that it is driven entirely by your natural human curiosity. Once you get through the initial "tutorial" section (probably the roughest part of the game, push through!) the whole game is wide open. See something weird orbiting a distant planet? You can go straight there and start poking around. If you follow the leads that turn up there, you will eventually even figure out what it is, and why it is there. Do that enough and you'll eventually figure out the strange mystery of your home solar system.
Can't recommend it highly enough, but you only get to play it without knowing the secrets once, so go in as blind as you can. It took me 20-30 hours to "solve" the main game, maybe another 20 for the DLC, which is also well worth it
Congratulations! It's an exciting time and they are such marvellous little creatures. Here are some random thoughts that may be useful
Pregnancy
Delivery
Most hospitals / maternity wards offer tours. If you are planning a hospital birth, going in the week before to see the place helped reduce a lot of the anxiety when the time finally came. They can't be scheduled far in advance because it depends on how busy they are, so keep checking
Familiarise yourself with the physical details of the birth process. We read through "The Birth Partner" (Simkin and Cheney) together in the preceding months. There is one chapter where they subtly endorse some pseudoscience, but if you can skip over that when you run into it, we found it very informative and helpful about what to expect.
The event itself is exciting, but overwhelming. Again, your wife will be entirely consumed by managing the physical demands. You can help by taking care of the logistical and emotional demands. Advocate for her. The staff are on the same team as you, but you are the only one with the brain space to ensure that the decisions your wife wants for the birth are being kept in mind.
Newborn
The first 2-3 weeks are the hardest. You're adjusting, and the baby is adjusting, and all three of you will have to figure out how to make it work. I hope you are in a place where you can all take time off work. We were lucky in that we were able to breastfeed without too many issues, but regardless if it works the same for you or not, those early days must be a team effort. My wife fed, I did the diapers, and we all woke up together.
Early on, we ran into some pretty difficult nights where the baby just would not sleep. It turned out she was not getting enough breast milk. Once we started adding some formula, she went right back to sleep. We did this until my wife's supply increased, which is a fairly common pattern.
I don't know why I didn't expect this, but newborns generally dislike the experience of getting their diapers changed. It will be a fight for a little while. I say this because, if they ever stop crying while you are in the middle of one, duck and cover. That means they are about ready for part two. And it can come with some force. Those little changing mats do not cover nearly enough. We had to put down an extra layer of paper towels along the whole "trajectory". (This does calm down eventually)
Babies are demanding. It is rewarding, but there will be exhausting days. Early on, my wife and I devised a system where we each get one day a week that we have "off" from the baby, barring emergencies. I can't overstate how much of a difference having that one "recharge" day makes in managing the stress, it has been extremely helpful.
Things we got that have been worth their weight in gold:
Things we got that really weren't as important as we thought they were going to be
I know that looks like a lot, but it's really not bad, because most of it is extra, conveniences and nice-to-have things. As long as you have food, diapers, and a safe place for the baby to sleep, all of that other stuff can be figured out on the go, and you will figure it out as you find what works for you. And the love and joy that come with the baby are indescribable. The rewards are there, and they eclipse the challenges.
You can do this, and it will be wonderful!
Amber is a classic example that comes up in these discussions.
Intrepid uses playing cards instead of dice to resolve scenes and combat. For scenes, two people each narrate an outcome, and players vote on the version they prefer using red or black playing cards. A card is then selected and that outcome becomes the truth, so there is still an element of randomness.
In combat, each suit has a specific meaning for the ebb and flow of the battle, jokers change the scene, and the first person to draw the 4th ace wins the fight.
Most of Ben Robbins' don't have a random element at all and conflicts are resolved through procedure. Follow uses two coloured stones/poker chips/tokenswhich are drawn from a bag, similar to Intrepid. He also provides a "finger dice" system for getting dice-like results without using dice. On a signal, every player throws from 0 to 5 fingers, and groups of 5 fingers are eliminated. The remainder is roughly equivalent to a d6 roll.
Man, we ended up setting up a wiki for all the ones from my last campaign... it's down at the moment, but here are a few I have saved on my phone:
"My companions and I are professional adventurers"
"Some of us more professional than others..."
"For no sexy reason, what does the pope look like?"
"Also, I'm not doing terrible! But I definitely just got stabbed."
Bard: "No, this is wholesome [Bard] moment! Anyway, how much money do you have?"
Sorcerer: "[Ranger], we are about to do some wacky-ass magic"
Ranger: "In that case, I would like to watch it from over there."
Sorcerer: "I will not be doing it. I will be joining you."
GM: "Divine and wild magic start pouring into and it's like... Have you ever licked a battery?"
GM: "Divine, chaos, and dragon magic flows through you—"
Bard: "And bardic from the inspiration!"
Ranger: "Oh I can add some ranger nature!"
Sorcerer: "And I have one that can help! I cast minor illusion to make a "do not disturb" sign."
"If I take one more step, it'll be the furthest I've ever been from home..."
"You didn't even have to step."
"If I take one more interdimensional vortex..."
"Your left or my left? You're an orb."
"I am."
"Float like a flowerpot, sting like a school bus."
Outer Wilds for me.
Outer Wilds is a brilliant game that you can only really play properly once in your life, as by the end you'll have solved all the puzzles and learned all the mysteries, so I'm going to put the rest in a spoiler tag. I encourage anyone who hasn't played it yet to do so before reading further so as not to cheapen the experience.
People are very correctly moved by the game's ending sequence and the message about coming to terms with things outside our control, especially the end of things (life, the universe, everything). But as beautiful and sad as it is, to me it felt more awe inspiring and reflective than outright tear-jerking.
That part for me came a bit later when I'd had some time to sit with my own feelings and could sort of re-examine the story in the context of the characters. And holy moly, it's so tragic. You have the Nomai, bright, scientific, endless optimists who reforged their society after a horrible accident left then marooned in the star system. And just as they were beginning to get their feet back under them, they were entirely (and, in all likelihood, horribly painfully) wiped out by the Interloper, a completely external celestial body. There is literally nothing they could have done to save themselves. It's so terribly unfair, and yet, what do you rail against? The universe? Physics? There was no malice in their fate, just bad luck.
That's to say nothing of the smaller scale tragedies you can infer from their bones. The children playing their game in the cave. The crew of escape pod three who committed no errors but were still doomed, with nothing left to do but embrace each other. The Nomad implied to be working inside the Ash Twin project at the time the ghost matter flooded the solar system, who must have heard the sudden silence from his friends and then warped out to investigate, only to die within a few steps.
Then look at the Hearthians, those plucky, reckless, endlessly inventive and courageous people with the misfortune to be born at the end of the universe. (see the common theme?) They work so hard to explore and understand (Chert and Hornfels) and to conquer their fears (Riebeck and arguably the player character), but through no fault of their own, that day, the inaugural flight of their newest traveller, was their last. And, even though it is only in the weird metaphysical space of the Eye, we see them somehow make peace with it (try talking to "real" Chert during the last few minutes of the loop).
But you know what isn't an ambiguous metaphysical mind space? The very last scene. As you witness the birth of a new universe, when everyone else is long gone, you at least get this last moment to witness that it is not the end. And your helmet's visor cracks. Whatever else happened in the Eye, this at least is real and physical, and the Hatchling gets to witness the continuation for just a moment before being consumed by it.
DLC spoilers next
You can even make an argument for the inhabitants of the Stranger. Though they serve as your foes by the time you meet them, all around are clues they, in other, happier circumstances, you might have been great friends. They loved music, art, their home, and each other. The only reason they are monstrous is because they let themselves become consumed by fear until it had twisted them beyond all recognition. It's the same fear you have to push through in order to learn the truth, and when you do, you get a glimpse of who they might have been. Which is why I think the DLC is brilliantly designed, even though not everyone was a fan of the stealth segments.
Each story is tragic in its own way, but also told in such an immensely moving and compelling manner. When I finally had the space to really put it all together, well, it did me in.
I've watched several friends and family play through it and even now I still choke up a bit at that final scene, your visor cracking, your suit's HUD finally winking out, with the grand crescendo of Let There Be Light from the soundtrack swelling, and the new Big Bang expanding on blinding radiance in front of you, the proof that the journey will continue, and is no less meaningful even though your part in it is over.
Hey, perhaps this is a bit silly, but I just wanted to let you know I always look at these and read through your notes. I really enjoy Satisfactory, but don't have as much time to play as I did once, so it's always a delight when I stumble across one of your posts on my feed and I get to see the progress you're making.
I appreciate the time you take to plan everything out and make your builds look good, it's always inspiring.
Anyway, that's all. Keep it up mate!
I think you've received lots of great advice here already. One additional thing you may want to keep in mind as you're weighing your options is how the manner in which this character exits may impact other players.
Obviously, the needs of this player come first, and making whatever changes they need to ensure they can keep having fun in the game is most important. But I bring it up because, in a similar situation where I was running a game for a player who wanted to switch characters, I executed the change in a bit of a clumsy way that one of my other players found frustrating.
I had worked together with the player who wanted to change to craft a heroic last stand scenario in which their old character would sacrifice himself to allow the rest of the party to escape. Critically, we didn't discuss these intentions with anyone else at the table. One of my other players picked up on what was happening the moment we started playing it out, and did everything he could to prevent the loss of a party member. I essentially railroaded right over anything they tried.
Afterwards, they told me that while they understood why I ran it that way once the other player had a chance to explain their intentions and new character, it still wasn't very much fun to play through in the moment.
All this to say, if I had to do it again, I would make sure I have some sort of buy-in from the other players. They wouldn't need to know all the details, certainly, but I think a little heads-up would have made that experience much smoother for everyone.
Maybe FATE would be worth checking out?
Things I think it might hit for you:
Characters are good at what they're good at. You define the core concepts of your character and use them to get bonuses. Your character is a Highly Trained Ninja? Then yeah, you'll be getting bonuses to all your sneaking, hiding, acrobatics, flashy martial arts, etc. Plus, the way the maths work, the dice have a bell curve centred at +0 (extremes of +4/-4) so the +4 in your character's best skill is constantly having a huge impact on outcomes. Contrast that with your +7 in D&D which is still missing 25% of the time
Fairly simple rules. The core is, describe what you're trying to do, and then use one of four basic actions to model it if a roll seems appropriate: Attack, Defend, Overcome (beat a DC) or Create an Advantage (alter circumstances/environment/characters to tip the odds in your favour). However, there's a little more for combat and also a meta currency to manage, which I'll talk about below
Very quick to get off the ground. Character creation can take only minutes if you want. No mucking about with long lists of feats and spells and class builds and whatnot. You're actively encouraged to leave spots blank and fill them in during play when an idea strikes you, great for new and unsure players
Completely setting agnostic, it's flexible enough to do almost anything
Things I think it might miss for you:
FATE's approach is much closer to a story game, especially compared to something like D&D which leans towards the simulation side of the spectrum. Its meta currency, Fate points, aims to emulate the feel of an action movie or TV show. Spend points to do awesome things, get them back for accepting challenges, complications, and setbacks in your character's arc. That latter point especially often means the table needs to have a "writer's room" mentality, which isn't a good fit for all players.
FATE doesn't really try to do certain things that D&D does, like strict resource management, accumulation of powerful loot, big powerful character level ups, or dungeon crawling. It can be done, and guides are out there to help you do so, but you will be bolting a lot of extras onto the system, so watch out if those are what you enjoy
Which brings me to the last point, FATE is a system that really wants you to hack it and make it your own. It's very resilient to this sort of thing compared to something like D&D where getting some maths wrong can make things unfun in innumerable ways, but it does take effort and thought regardless, which may not be to everyone's taste. For example, you won't really find a "bestiary" of monsters to throw at players, you'll be making them up yourself, maybe entirely on the fly.
The rules are all freely available online or in pay-what-you-want PDFs. There are three current editions:
FATE Core, all the rules of the game plus lots of extras, examples, optional systems, things like that
FATE Condensed, all the rules same as Core, but with most of the extras cut out and overall streamlined down to 60 pages from 300 or so
FATE Accelerated, uses the same basic ideas for its rules, but simplifies things down to the barest of minimums, e.g. dropping the skill list for 6 basic "approaches", simplifying the damage system.
Here's a link to FATE Condensed, as I personally found it easiest to start with: https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed
One disclaimer: I haven't actually played it myself yet, but I have been prepping a one shot I'll be taking my D&D 5e group through this weekend to see if it's going to be a good fit for us, so I have been doing a lot of research!
Seconding Fate, the rules do a good job of supporting the fiction rather than encumbering it. I felt it very much supported that feeling of "I can do anything I can reasonably imagine."
To help with the tyranny of the blank page, I'd recommend coming up with a pregenerated character to demo how it all works. Then, encourage her to change or adjust anything she wants to on the sheet. My players initially found it easier to modify something to their liking than to come up with something from scratch.
Magic can be as simple as "Roll your Lore skill" if you want or you can look up several more detailed add-ons that are out there, like Fate High Fantasy magic.
The rules are freely available here: https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed.
I have put hundreds of hours into RoR2 on PC, love the game. I recently purchased a Switch copy so I could play with a friend of mine who is console-only. Sadly, the port is still in a pretty bad place when I checked last (2-3 weeks ago).
I am not expecting the PC and console experience to be identical by any stretch, but I am talking about basic issues like the music on each stage cutting out after playing for only 10-15 seconds, wonky damage (Beetle Queens absolutely massacring us even on Rainstorm if we touched their projectile splash zones), and all the other miscellaneous issues from the patch like logbook being glitches, unlocks being unpredictable, etc.
I think it could potentially be fixed, but I would give them time to put out a few more bugfix patches before I considered a console purchase
Seconded! OP, in a similar vein as the world building games you already mentioned, you might find Intrepid interesting. I could see it being used to do world building + history of some of the major players and nations therein.
I could also imagine the relationship map it uses being hacked a bit to allow for some Disco Elysium style personality skills / thought cabinet shenanigans if you were interested in leaning into that in particular.
Ahhh, loads of them!
D&D adjacent stuff like Pathfinder 2e.
PBTA and kin like Dungeon World, Monster of the Week, Ironsworn. Blades in the Dark.
Delta Green.
I have a whole folder of freeform, GMless stuff like Microscope, Kingdom, Follow, Archipelago, Dawn of Worlds, Dialect, Intrepid, The Quiet Year.
Gonzo one shot stuff like Paranoia, The Sorcerer Supreme, Ten Candles, peace was never an option (think untitled goose game: the rpg).
I recently had a test run or two of Fate Condensed and got completely hooked.
Most of those I'd be content to run or play, but the game I really want to GM myself is a campaign I've been dreaming up for about year now that I call the "sedition sandbox". The scope is focussed to a single city, the capital of a hostile foreign empire. The PCs are an elite team of saboteurs and infiltrators, sent by a nation desperate to turn the tides of a losing war. Their only objective is to bring down the empire from within. Intrigue, plots, rebellions, sabotage, faction politics, assassinations, propaganda, blackmail, anything the players can think of to achieve that goal is fair game. How far will they go to stop the greater evil?
I think it would be a blast (naturally, I guess), and one or two players in my local network have expressed a little interest, but I've yet to rally the kind of commitment I think I'd need to really get off the ground. And the inexorable march of time makes it less likely with every passing day, as my friends either move away or are subjected to all life's little tyrannies of responsibility ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I use LogSeq to organise all my notes. My group meets in-person, but I use Foundry to put background art, NPC portraits, etc. up on a screen, as well as to manage any NPC character sheets.
It may stretch the definition of 'tool' a bit, but the other thing I do is set up my laptop with four desktops/workspaces (notes, Foundry, music, rules) so I can switch between them with Ctrl+Windows+Left/Right. It's a minor thing, but I am constantly surprised by how many people I run into who don't know that you can do it. Switching desktops feels like much less friction to me than Alt+Tabbing between windows for some reason.
I love Fate. I am using it to run what I'm calling my "sedition sandbox" campaign (there's an evil empire, you've been sent to its capital as spies and saboteurs, now tell me how you bring it down from the inside).
It's been working great. On our best nights, we hit a tone reminiscent of Andor as my players hit key targets, turn their enemies against each other, and grapple with just how far they are willing to go in the name of the cause.
thanks for using Leebra!
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