Total Pebble Knockdown

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Managing money in the real world is pretty hard, but managing multiple currencies in a game can be unneccessarily harder. Can there be a justification for using multiple currencies or is it just there to complicate things that should be easy to understand? So, the party wants to fight each other in ritual combat. Just a typical Saturday night at the taver...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:  It's time for a confession: Nathan does not like boss battles. That's right, the boss battles did a bad job in the game. It's about how they have been implemented in games, especially in modern ones. And so, I guess we'll get into this and the real reason he feels this way.  Imagine your party is just completing a quest and... oops, everything...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: They made Tetris into a movie. No, I am not kidding. It's a real thing. There is a trailer. This came as quite a shock to Alex when he heard the news and now we get to discuss if we even want to see it. Also, what other docu-drama style movies could we make from video games? The Tetris trailer - Tetris — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ - YouTube So if you ha...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown:  That'll be $70 please. The standard pricing of AAA video games has unceremoniously been raised to a defacto $70, but does that really seem justified? Moreover, is it something we would pay and is there any game that would be worth it? Nasu video - The Absolute State of Unfinished AAA Game Releases - YouTube...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Xbox and Bethesda gave us a Developer Direct video explaining upcoming projects for the upcoming year. So, does anything they showed look appealing? We will discuss Minecraft Legends, Forza Motorsport, Hi-Fi RUSH, Elder Scrolls Online’s new Necrom expansion and Redfall. Developer_Direct, presented by Xbox & Bethesda - YouTube In a previous episode, we...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Google Stadia is dead. The cloud servers are down, the platform has ceased to be. It is an ex-Stadia. While a blow for the future of cloud gaming, there were some real lessons to learn from it’s end. What were the promises of this cloud platform and what were the problems? Google Stadia Is Dead, And It’s A Sad Day For Gaming (forbes.com) Stadia ☁️🎮 on Tw...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Alex played a game you would not expect him to play which means we are doing a GYDTWP. On this episode, we discuss Hardship Spacebreaker… cough… Hardspace Shipbreaker and the surprising joys of breaking down space shuttles for scrap. A game of physics, puzzles, survival and dying, we talk about one of the hidden gems from this past year which is already m...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: It's a new year and so let's start things off right by talking about... Diablo 4? Alex played the closed beta and now that the beta period has ended, he had some thoughts on what he saw. He got to play a barbarian, a druid and a necromancer... wait, is this Diablo 2? We'll discuss how this compares to Diablo 2 and 3 as well as other games, what he saw for...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: It's the holiday season and whoopdie doo and dickory dock, don't forget to put a pebble in your sock. It's our holiday special and we are becoming Scrooge in real time. Luckily, the Pac Man ghosts have visited us so we can learn the true meaning of gaming. Let us go back in time to gaming past. We discuss the original board games we learned, the old schoo...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Well, it's time for a souls-like round up. Nathan has been playing Steelrising and Asterigos and has many positive things to say about them, surprisingly. We also discuss Alex's attempt at playing Code Vein and how that worked out. Badly, we're guessing. So more One D&D playtest material has been released and this time it revolves around the Cleric. W...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Ming from BrotherMing Games is joining us on this episode to discuss his Kickstarter for Re;Act: The Arts of War, a game where artists do battle with cards. Can you dance your way around a calligrapher? Inquiring minds want to know. You can find more information about Re;Act here - Re;Act - The Arts of War | Brother Ming Games Ming started out making fan...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Black Friday is right around the corner and thus the deals are all over the place. However, how does that translate to games? Not as well as you might think. We’ll look at “deals” for the PS5, the arcade cabinet you totally wanted and a few tabletop sales. Also, has Black Friday changed in the last few years and is that a good thing? Vampire Survivors is...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: A close encounter with an old-school D&D player left Alex with a lot to ponder. And so, we're discussing how older versions of D&D were played as opposed to the newer versions, what changed, why it changed and how everyone could benefit from the input of others. Open worlds, rich mechanics, grand storytelling, personal journeys, complex customizat...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Breeze Grigas joined us on this episode to discuss the upcoming Kickstarter for AEGIS: 2nd Ignition. Who would not want to enjoy combining robots in a tactical game? Well, all the people who enjoyed the first game can now enjoy the new one. Can we think of ways to combine games about combining robots? Yes. Kickstarter launches Jan. 17th. The Kickstarter p...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Once upon a time, Nathan backed a Kickstarter for a game called Coral Island. Although he did not play the alpha when it released a year ago, he has been playing the early access version that released on Steam and other platforms 2 weeks ago. But it has become evident over 30+ hours that big chunks of the game are not actually developed yet. So, let’s dis...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: It is our season one finale, a time to look back on where we’ve gone in the past year and what we plan on doing in the future. Guests? Livestreams? More obscure videos? Let’s find out on a very close-to-home Weekly Muse It’s the last chapter in our spoopy fest and we have saved the worst for last: CLOWNS! We go into why clowns are scary and how you can ma...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Everybody get on the trolley. Oh no, some people are tied to the tracks! What shall we do? On this Crit Think, Nathan subjects Alex to a few of his homebrewed trolley problems to see how cruel he is toward the poor people about to be run over. An overview of the trolley problem - What is the 'Trolley Problem?’ | Merriam-Webster Last of the One D&D exp...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Steam is having a Next Fest with tons of demos for upcoming video games. Nathan got the chance to play a few of these games. Some of these were good, some were mediocre and one was basically unplayable. Find out which are which in this Weekly Muse. Some more discussion on draft material of One D&D because of course. This time, we'll talk a little abou...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Star Citizen, the game that still has not actually been released, just passed $500 million in funding. We still have no idea when the game is coming out, but there are rumblings about sequels. Anyways, let’s discuss this milestone after 10 years in development. Star Citizen Crowdfunds Half a Billion Dollars - and $100 Million In Less Than a Year - IGN Sta...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: So, a lot of discussion has been going on around player character death, so let’s discuss what you can do with characters once they die. Perhaps they can have a fun adventure in the afterlife, fight some demons, haunt the living, reincarnate, be a rat therapist… okay, we might go off the rails here. Cozy games are an ever-growing genre of video games, but...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: In Weekly Muse, is Matt Mercer a terrible DM? This is something we decided to discuss following comments on the most recent Critical Role episode. So, we're going to talk about how dangerous a world should be, what the consequences are for a player's actions and other ways to slam players when things go wrong. We will also answer that question. WARNING: S...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Are you getting enough sleep? Not in real life, we already know the answer to that is "No". Instead, are you getting enough sleep in games? We're looking at sleep, resting, curfews and other annoyances that games will use to make you end your business day, even if you were doing something cool. Does this work? Should it be changed? Are there better ways t...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: Wizard Presents 2022 gave us many big announcements concerning Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. We are somewhat familiar with these things, so let's break down some of the big announcements, from Warhammer cards to the upcoming supplements to the huge One D&D reveal. Wizard Presents 2022 So, One...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: If you have ever watched a movie or TV show, played a game or read a book, you have probably noticed some typical character archetypes. At a certain point these become tropes that are easy to fall back on as writing devices. But does that mean you should play one in your games? We look at a list of 15 character tropes to see how these could work in your g...

On this episode of Total Pebble Knockdown: While magic items may often be powerful, they can also prove to be rare and expensive. But what about secondhand magic items? You know, the “gently used” items pawned off to a traveling merchant for resale? What if your players got ahold of those? We ponder the possibilities of broken, worn and mysterious used items that have more intrigue than your stand...