aabicus – Page 2 – The Daily SPUF

2013-2023: 10 Years of Daily SPUF

August 19, 2023August 19, 2023 aabicus 1 Comment articles, celebration, history, milestone, SPUF, The Daily SPUF, writing

Phovos’ Nightwave critique yesterday clocked out 10 years of articles on The Daily SPUF! That’s right, on August 18 2013 we published our first article, a rant about Team Fortress 2’s Half-Zatoichi. Over the past decade since, we have published a new article every day without fail (except once), covering a huge swathe of games and topics from all across the Steamosphere and beyond, and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you who read, commented on, or submitted articles over the past 3,652 days. In order to commemorate the occasion, I wanted to write another… [Continue Reading]

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The 5 Most-Impactful Steam Trades in My Life

July 28, 2023July 16, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, history, inventory, items, steam, trade, trading, weapons

There’s something kinda nice about having all my years of gaming stored on Steam. For people like me who got into the scene late, I can pretty much track my entire life through my Steam history, traipse through old screenshots and reviews to see what I was into during those phases of my life. But at least personally, the tab with the most nostalgia is somewhat hidden away in a dusty corner of the inventory screen. Expanding the dropbar near “Trade Offers” lets you see an itemized list of everything you’ve ever done to alter your inventory across Steam’s many… [Continue Reading]

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Return of the Obra Dinn

July 19, 2023July 20, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments mystery, obra dinn, recommendation, retrospective, return of the obra dinn, review, water

I seem to have a habit of abandoning games due to frustration with the core gameplay mechanics, giving it another go 5+ years later, and only then getting completely hooked. It happened with Just Cause 2, World of Warcraft, Stardew Valley, ARK Survival Evolved, and now it’s happened with Return of the Obra Dinn, Lucas Pope’s latest bureaucracy-themed indie game. Set on an 1800s ghost ship that mysteriously returned to dock with none of its passengers or crew aboard, the player controls an insurance inspector who boards the vessel tasked with learning the fates of all 60 missing persons. The core… [Continue Reading]

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5 More Great Weapons in Call of Cthulhu

June 18, 2023May 11, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments advice, ammo, Call of Cthulhu, grenades, lists, melee, roleplay, roleplaying, shotgun, weapons

Last year I covered five (really six) of my favorite weapons in the Call of Cthulhu RPG system. Since then, I’ve gotten to play more campaigns and more characters, and I’ve found some additional combat options that I think really hold their own. Whether raiding eldritch tombs or staking out satanic speakeasies, here are some effective personal defense options I think you should consider: 1. Sawed-off Shotgun The famous double-barrel boomstick is the archetypical survivalist’s weapon, and it should have made the first article for its laundry list of positive traits. It can fire twice a round and each shot… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: A Complete Guide to Sidekicks

May 22, 2023December 14, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, roleplay, roleplaying, rules, sidekick

Pelor help me, I’ve fallen down another rabbit hole of obscure D&D mechanics. And these are even less likely than usual to ever happen in my actual games. But I don’t care because the sidekick rules are honestly really cool and revolve around one of my favorite concepts: playable NPC/monsters! Introduced in Dragon of Icespire Peak (and heavily fleshed out in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything), the sidekick rules are a system whereby a normally-unplayable creature can gain its own class levels that let it grow stronger alongside a party of regular PCs. There are three Sidekick classes (Warrior, Expert, and Spellcaster)… [Continue Reading]

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The 5 Best Weapons in D&D 5e (That You Can’t Use)

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, Filler, list, npc, roleplay, roleplaying, weapons

D&D 5th Edition simplified the weapon tables to an extreme degree compared to its predecessors. Gone are Exotic Weapon Proficiencies, or most subqualities like “keen” or “masterwork”, and most of the surviving options differ only in damage type or dice. And for the most part, martial NPCs/monsters honor these categories and follow the same rules for their own loadouts. But sometimes they don’t. Occasionally, a certain official monster or villain carries some seriously cool racial weapon with unique stats, and every GM just knows the party’s gonna ask if they can loot it from the corpse and use it themselves.… [Continue Reading]

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My 5 Favorite Bows in Gaming

May 10, 2023May 11, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments bow, bow and arrow, bows, crossbow, list, loadout, payday 2, planetside 2, Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, tomb raider, weapons

Since Medic recently covered her 5 favorite bows in Warframe, I was inspired to do something similar, but for gaming as a whole. I’ve often found myself gravitating to bows when available, in part due to their uniqueness in a modern setting. They often play wholly differently to regular firearms, with arcs and draw times and often extra ammo types. The general trend is “rewarding if you learn how to use it,” and I love standing out through mastering the intricacies of an unusual weapon or gadget. One last note before we begin that crossbows are also eligible for this… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: A Guide to Throwing Weapons

April 13, 2023May 16, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, melee, roleplay, roleplaying, throwing weapons, thrown weapons, weapons

There are a few playstyles in 5e that don’t really receive enough developer support, in my humble opinion. Strength-based unarmed builds, for one, as well as single-wielding one-handed weapons without a corresponding shield. But throwing builds are probably the most-maligned on the list. Unless you stretch all the way into archery, non-spellcasters unfortunately aren’t going to hold their own in ranged combat. In today’s article, I want to discuss a few of the reasons why, and what an enterprising player can do to mitigate the issues. Problem #1: Action Economy Martial characters (except rogues) gain more attacks as they level… [Continue Reading]