aabicus – Page 3 – The Daily SPUF

Call of Cthulhu: My 5 Favorite Under-Used Skills

November 22, 2022January 15, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments 6, 7, advice, Call of Cthulhu, list, roleplay, roleplaying, skill

By far the toughest part of Call of Cthulhu is how few skillpoints it gives you. When every skill uses a percentile and you only get a couple-hundred points to allocate, it’s really difficult to excel at more than a few checks. This naturally leads to the most obviously-useful skills (Spot Hidden, Library Use, Firearms, Stealth) seeing massive use across the playerbase. But today I wanted to talk about some rarer skills that I’ve nonetheless found worth investing in. Many times they can save you skillpoints in other areas, or unlock niche-but-effective playstyles. You certainly can’t pick them all, but at… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Pokemon: Much Ado About Breloom

November 11, 2022May 31, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments breloom, Filler, mushroom, pokemon, shroomish

I’ve written articles about my two favorite Pokémon already, but we humans just can’t resist making Top 3s of everything, can we? While Rotom is still my favorite battle Pokémon, Breloom is usually far easier to find in the games it appears. Its pre-evolution Shroomish is a common sight in early-game grassy routes, with its adorable stubby legs and grumpy face. I can’t look at its unamused little frown without smiling. Breloom (along with Shroomish) is clearly a fungus Pokémon, but I like how much more interesting its design gets than just that. Sure its mushroom hat is awesome, but… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Planetside 2 Breaks Its Own World Record

November 7, 2022November 6, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments event, history, planetside 2, recap, record, shooter, world record

Last week Planetside 2 made a bold announcement. On November 5th, they invited everyone to connect to the Public Test Server and break their own record for “Most Players in a Single FPS Battle.” The current record, 1158, was already held by them and achieved in 2015. For anyone who missed that milestone, this was an exciting opportunity to play a part in Planetside 2 history. Now, despite playing Planetside 2 since 2013, I’d skipped the previous world record attempt and knew I didn’t want to miss this one. So I preloaded the test client and generated a PTS character in advance.… [Continue Reading]

Featured

CTF_Crasher, the Most Interesting New TF2 Map in Years

October 22, 2022October 22, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments Classes, ctf, guide, halloween, loadout, loadouts, scream fortress, Team Fortress 2

I’ve found myself occasionally leaping back into TF2 these days. I’m not sure why, maybe I just miss the mixture of arena shooter mechanics and incredible character design/writing. But anyway, with Scream Fortress 2022 in full swing, I’ve had a chance to play all the new maps, and I really really like ctf_crasher. Overview For those who haven’t tried it, ctf_crasher is the first ‘new’ game mode we’ve received in years. While nominally Capture the Flag, it’s actually ‘reverse CTF’ in that both teams are trying to deliver their bomb to the enemy camp. And whichever character carries their team’s… [Continue Reading]

Featured

D&D 5e: A Guide to Playing Level 0 Characters

October 14, 2022April 23, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, breakdown, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, level 0, roleplaying, rules

Did you know D&D 5e actually has an official method for generating 0th-level characters? The Adventurer’s League module “What’s Past is Prologue” stars classless characters, and you can view the rules for generating your own in the free preview. I was pretty excited to learn this, as the ‘level 0 session’ is a popular unofficial method for playing underpowered ‘commoner runs.’ Today I wanted to talk about this niche ruleset, its pros and cons, and whether you should use it. Should you use Level 0 characters? My first caveat is that you should not run level 0 characters for beginning… [Continue Reading]

Featured

D&D 5e: How to Build an Effective Naked Character

October 12, 2022April 23, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments armour, builds, d&d, D&D unarmored builds, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, nudity, roleplay, unarmored

Okay, you don’t literally have to be naked, but this article is about unarmored builds and how to craft one that doesn’t sacrifice effectiveness or survivability. I always find myself gravitating to unarmored characters because it fits my personal fantasy of a heroic protagonist. From shirtless barbarians to suit-wearing badasses to unlucky everyman survivors… Fiction is filled with characters who take on the world without a shred of protection beyond their skills and smarts. But unfortunately, D&D’s primary form of AC is equipping armor (heck, the acronym literally means ‘Armor Class.’) Which means you need to keep some things in mind… [Continue Reading]

Featured

D&D 5e: Why You Should Play a Dex Paladin

September 21, 2022September 29, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments Classes, d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, Paladin, paladins, roleplaying

Paladin is an incredible class, possibly the most reliable all-rounder in D&D. Between their tankiness, damage output, healing output, magic steed, and sky-high Charisma, they’re an incredible choice for new and old players. When I GMed a solo adventure to introduce the system to my boyfriend, I knew Paladin was the best class to let him experience everything D&D has to offer. But there’s one Paladin playstyle I don’t hear talked about often, and that’s the Dex Paladin. Normally, Paladins are the iconic Strength class, thanks to their heavy armor and predilection for melee combat. But I happen to believe… [Continue Reading]

Featured

D&D 5e: 5 Good Feats For Monks

August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, monk, roleplay, roleplaying

Monks have a problem when it comes to grabbing feats in that they are highly dependant on ability score improvements (ASIs) to function. They need good Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution to function, and if you don’t improve those numbers, you’ll quickly fall behind. That means the only time I can really recommend taking a feat on Monk is as a 1st level Variant Human/Custom Lineage. (Or if you have an odd-numbered Dex or Wis and take a feat that boosts either stat by +1). With that being said, there are several stellar feat options if you go ahead and do… [Continue Reading]

Featured

How to Easily Obtain the Hardest Achievement in Quake

July 27, 2022July 20, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments achievement, guide, quake, speedrun, the painless maze

“The Painless Maze” is one of the rarest achievements in Quake, requiring you to beat E4M6 “The Pain Maze” on Nightmare difficulty without taking damage. As one of the longest and toughest maps in the game, few people have done this. But today’s guide details how you can earn it without premade saves, cheats, or Nightmare-level skills required! A Note on In-Game Cheats As this guide notes, right now you can just use sv_cheats 1, toggle “god”, and get the achievement that way. But in case the devs ever patch this (or you want to earn it more legitly), this guide will detail… [Continue Reading]

Featured

A Brief History of Glass in Team Fortress

July 25, 2022July 25, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments glass, map design, quake, quake ii, Team Fortress 2, team fortress classic, TFC

It may seem odd that I’m devoting a whole article to glass, an incredibly common and straightforward building material. Some games let you break it, others let you shoot through it, and many don’t. Within a few minutes of playtime, you’ll probably notice Team Fortress 2 is decidedly in the latter category. Case closed? Not quite, because glass actually has a more checkered history than you’d first expect. It first came to my attention when I started playing Team Fortress Classic and noticed that only one map had glass: Rock2, letting the flag-scoring player watch their pursuers die to toxic gas.… [Continue Reading]