Project Month 2024!

 

Dubbing Differences: Winnie the Pooh

 

I found the following notable changes in the Brazilian Portuguese dub of Disney's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh:

Storytelling Principles I Learned from Avatar: The Last Airbender

 

I'd be surprised if anyone hasn't seen the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series yet, but if you haven't, then stop reading this blog and go get a Netflix subscription and watch it NOW! There are very few series, if any, that have better worldbuilding, character development, and storytelling than Avatar, and I hope by exploring its storytelling tools, I can reverse-engineer ways to add engagement in my own stories and roleplaying games. The main aspect I'm going to be discussing is variety and contrast. The variety of places, things, concepts, characters, and pacing in the show are what I think make each episode and season unique, and what contribute to a rich narrative that is hard to stop watching.

D&D Mechanics Inspired by StarCraft II

 

I browsed an old strategy guide for Age of Empires: Rise of Rome from 4th Grade, and pretty soon my years-dormant interest in real-time strategy games was enthusiastically re-ignited. I played Age of Empires, Age of Kings, StarCraft, and now I'm playing the third campaign of StarCraft II, Legacy of the Void. You might not think that RTS games have much in common with an RPG like D&D, but good inspiration can be found anywhere, and here are some of the things I've been inspired by from the past few weeks playing StarCraft II.

Card Game: Scuttle

I've always loved games that have a high simple/accessible-to-fun ratio, and for a long time I thought it would be amazing if there was a fun, strategic game you could play with a simple deck of regular cards. Eventually, I discovered Cuttle, which checked all the boxes of what I was looking for: Easy to get the materials for, the first combat card game ever, and with interesting mechanics that wouldn't require too much explanation to new players.

Quick Guide to Making a Fun 5-Stage D&D Boss Battle

I've run quite a few boss battles in D&D 5e since I started playing it several years ago, and almost none of them were very memorable, or even fun. In a few, the boss died very quickly from one or two critical hits (probably a paladin, or maybe a spell attack); and in others, the battle lasted so long we were all exhausted, and the sweetness of the victory suffered from it. I've realized from playing some memorable boss battles in games like Legend of Zelda and Assassin's Creed: Origins that to be fun, a boss battle must have one very important thing: stages.

Gods of Argaenothruzil: DALL-E

AI is getting more and more impressive, and it is downright astounding to see things that have been in my own head come to life with fewer and fewer uncanny issues! This week I got into using the DALL-E AI image generator at bing.com/create, which is free and very impressive! (in short, the only thing I'll ever use Bing for). With its impressive grasp of descriptions, I was able to breathe new life into the gods of my fantasy settings once again.