UA: Metamorph mk. 2

 Yep, finally getting back to the Psion UA.

As a note, the Psi Warper subclass was not included in this UA, but for happy reasons: the response was so overwhelmingly positive that they didn't feel a need to revise it. My feelings on the Psi Warper back in May (wow, I guess it has been a while since the first UA) were quite positive, so good on it.

Once again, looking at the Metamorph, we've got the "Akira" subclass, in which psionics allow you to reshape your body to act as a martial-melee hybrid, the Psionic equivalent of a Bladesinger Wizard.

Now, some base Psion features did get changed - like the removal of its combat modes. I believe the subclass reintegrates elements of that. The core, though, is going to be the use of your Organic Weapons, which give you significant martial capabilities.

Metamorph Spells:

1st: Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds

2nd: Alter Self, Lesser Restoration

3rd: Aura of Vitality, Haste

4th: Polymorph, Stoneskin

5th: Contagion, Mass Cure Wounds

    Interestingly, this introduces a lot of healing spells to a class that generally doesn't get any. I think the intent is to give you some more resilience, but as a full caster with access to healing, you could probably really help out your party when they're in need. Remember that Cure Wounds is much better than it used to be, and upcasts decently. Obviously, some other spells like Polymorph and Haste can be quite powerful (though I think Haste is one of those spells I used to think of as absolute top-tier, but I think you could argue it's not that amazing).

Mutable Form:

As a bonus action, you can expend a PED (Psionic Energy Die - we're going to be sticking with that acronym) to transform, stretching your limbs, for 1 minute. You roll the die and gain Temp HP equal to the number rolled plus Int (minimum 1 THP). You also get an extra 5 feet of reach, an extra 5 feet of speed, and you can cast Touch-ranged spells that take an action to cast with a range of 10 feet.

    So, the Temp HP (how are we liking THP?) is nice, but pretty minor - I think 17 at absolute most at tier 4, if you roll maximum on your die. But the other benefits are fantastic. The "reach" on your touch spells means you can reach in to cure wounds an ally and potentially not put yourself in danger. Reach in general I think is an underrated feature.

Organic Weapons:

As a magic action, or when you take the attack action, you can reshape a free hand into either a Bone Blade, Flesh Maul, or Viscera Launcher, becoming a weapon (if you do this with the attack action, you can use the organic weapon to attack). The limb remains transformed until you take a Magic action to change it into a different organic weapon or you have the Unconscious condition, or you return the limb to normal (no action required). When you attack with the weapon, you can use Intelligence instead of Strength or Dexterity.

    Before we get into the weapons themselves, this is a great change: namely that the weapon persists even when you're not attacking with it. One of the technical issues with a Soulknife Rogue is that the weapons only exist while you're attacking, and while they did add that you could make an Opportunity Attack with them in 2024, you technically can't use them with a Battle Master's Commander's strike (though as a DM I'd for sure allow that). The UA also promises that there will be magic items that enhance these weapons. I hope any such items will also work on other subclass-granted armaments like the Beast Barbarian's natural weapons or the aforementioned psychic blades).

    One other note: while Psions get True Strike as a cantrip, which would seemingly be a great option for this subclass given that they later get Bladesinger-style extra attack (actually, can we call that Eldritch Knight-style now?) on a technical level, you can't use True Strike with these because they don't have a cost associated with them. Again, as a DM I'd allow it - the reason for the cost is to make it so that you cannot use a spell focus for the spell and thus not have a weapon to attack with. Frankly, I think spells like this or Booming Blade, etc., should just refer to the weapon as part of the spell, like Magic Weapon. Just as Cure Wounds doesn't make sense as a spell without a creature to heal, True Strike doesn't make sense as a spell without a weapon to enhance.

    One last note: one change, and slight nerf, to the organic weapon from the previous UA is that you used to be able to swap their damage type for Psychic. I'll grant that I don't know that that makes a lot of sense flavor-wise, but it was helpful, especially given a later feature.

The Organic Weapons are as follows:

Bone Blade: A blade of bone springs from your forearm. It counts as a simple melee weapon with the Finesse property, and deals 1d8 piercing damage on a hit. You have advantage on the attack roll you make with the blade if at least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the target and is not incapacitated.

    You might wonder why Finesse is on this given that you can attack with Intelligence. It's so that you can use it as a multiclassed Rogue! The Pack Tactics effect is semi-redundant for Rogue/Psions given that the ally would be giving you Sneak Attack anyway, but advantage is still nice to get in any scenario. You can also use this weapon for a feat like Defensive Duelist, as it'll stick around to parry with.

Flesh Maul: Your fist and forearm coalesce into a hardened mass of flesh and bone. The maul is a simple melee weapon that deals 1d10 bludgeoning damage. A creature hit with the maul has disadvantage on the next Strength or Constitution saving throw it makes before the start of your next turn.

    I don't believe you can swap weapons mid-attack action, but naturally this is a great concentration-breaker, as they'll immediately have to make that Con save.

Viscera Launcher: Your hand and forearm transform into a crossbow made of muscle and sinew firing bolts of bile. It's a simple ranged weapon with a normal range of 30 feet and a long range of 90 feet, and deals 1d6 Acid damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns, when you hit, you can deal and extra 1d6 Acid damage to the target.

    A bit like a much-grosser Armorer's Lightning Launcher. This is probably going to be the obvious default weapon if you want to stay away from your foes and let beefier characters tank them. The 30-foot normal range is quite low (equivalent to a Pistol) and if you often use Mutable Form, you'll already have a 10-foot reach on the other weapons. The extra d6 of damage does mean that this might win out in terms of overall damage. Once we get extra attack, it falls behind the Flesh Maul (2d10 is 11 average, 3d6 is 10.5 average) but the range is, of course, good.

Level 6:

Extra Attack:

We get extra attack, and like Eldritch Knights and Bladesingers, you can cast a Cantrip in place of one of those attacks.

    Given that we can attack with Intelligence anyway, certainly True Strike (if the DM isn't a stickler and lets you use it with your Organic Weapons) works great here, but other Psion cantrips can also work. Telekinetic Fling and Mind Sliver are both damage cantrips, but you can also consider something like Blade Ward to effectively boost your AC, or various other cantrips to accomplish non-combat tasks mid-fight.

Flesh Weaver:

When you use Mutable Form, you can expend a second PED to gain additional benefits, increasing your AC by 2 and allowing you to expend a PED when you cast a spell with a spell slot that restores HP to add to the healing equal to the roll of the PED.

    The AC is great, and probably worth the PED. I don't love spending a PED for the privilege of spending more PEDs to add honestly marginal healing to a spell you're already spending a spell slot on. Granted, on Mass Cure Wounds the die is effectively being multiplied, but I'd say this aspect of the feature is niche at best. But as one of two 6th level features, the other being the always-powerful Bladesinger Extra Attack, I can't complain.

Level 10:

Improved Mutable Form:

The duration of Mutable Form increases to 10 minutes, and you gain one of the following benefits that last the duration.

Stony Epidermis gives you advantage on Con saves to maintain concentration. You also get resistance to your choice of acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, lightning, piercing, poison, slashing, or thunder damage.

    Just off the top, this is really good - especially if you get a sense of what kind of damage is coming at you before you use this. The fact that this includes the three "kinetic" damage types means it's going to be useful in nearly every fight.

Superior Stride lets you, if you're not wearing armor, Dash as a bonus action and gives you a Climb and Swim speed equal to your speed.

    Also pretty good, though less universally necessary. (Again, the fact that we choose this each time we activate it means that niche utility is good to have).

Unnatural Flexibility grants a +1 bonus to AC (potentially on top of the +2 from Flesh Weaver) and you and all your worn equipment becomes pliable, letting you move through any space as narrow as 1 inch, and you can spend 5 feet of movement to escape from nonmagical restraints and end the Grappled condition.

    Once again, situational (well, the AC is always good) but really clutch when you need it.

    I will say overall that I kind of feel like Flesh Weaver should probably be folded into this, maybe with this coming at 6 or something, as they feel kind of like they're aiming to do the same basic thing: enhancing Mutable Form. Of the two features, I like this one more than Flesh Weaver.

Level 14:

Life-Bending Weapons:

When you hit a target with your Organic Weapon, you roll 1 PED and the weapon deals extra Necrotic damage equal to the damage rolled (the die is not expended). Alternatively, you can expend the die to cause each creature of your choice within 30 feet to regain HP equal to the number rolled on the PED plus your Intelligence modifier. Once you do this (the healing version) you can't do so again until the start of your next turn.

    So, at base, you're dealing 1d10 (at this level) extra Necrotic damage on every hit with your weapon. That's very solid way to keep your weapon scaling with magic weapons that martial character might be using. The heal isn't going to be massive, but given that it will likely hit several allies (yourself included,) it's pretty good. And that could be off-turn, like on an opportunity attack.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think this is a solid subclass. It's flavorful (in a very gross way) and also mechanically sound. You will need to deal with the fact that you're a d6 class with no armor who is trying to mix it up in melee, but Psions will have access to Mage Armor, the Shield Spell, potentially Blade Barrier, extra AC from Mutable Form's various enhancements, as well as potentially resistance to whatever damage type the monsters are using most, and reach weapons with Mutable Form, and you start to look pretty capable of getting into the mix.

    And if you're worried about doing so, you're still a full spellcaster.

    Again, my only real complaint here is that I feel like Flesh Weaver and Improved Mutable Form feel too similar, but that's a philosophical issue and not an actual problem with how the subclass works. I'll be giving it a green mark in the survey!

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Censor

 We come now to, alphabetically, the first of Draw Steel's core classes, but our last deep-dive. I will admit here that I don't really love the name Censor - the folks at MCDM say that the names were not there to be contrarian, and that their ideas for them were organically arrived at to create classes that only coincidentally overlap with classic D&D classes. I'm... skeptical. I mean, fine, whatever, I don't mean to offend: the game looks super cool (I haven't yet had a chance to play it - it might be a while) and I appreciate that part of the ethos of starting from scratch to avoid being burdened by the impulse to do things just because that's how they were always done includes coming up with ideas that don't automatically constellate around classes from D&D.

I guess it's just that, to me, a Censor is some isolated bureaucrat in a government office deciding what material should be removed from public consumption to further the interests of the state. Never have I associated it with someone actually armed to do battle. And perhaps I'm ignorant here of some archaic meaning of the word. Whatever - it's what the class is called. We'll move on.

Censors are essentially your holy knight/paladin/inquisitor class. Like how the Null is a psionic/martial hybrid, and how the Fury is (sort of) an elemental magic/martial hybrid, and how the Shadow is a shadow magic/martial hybrid (though with no "pure caster" equivalent,) Censors blend divine magic with their martial abilities.

Censors have numerous ways to support their parties while also singling out foes. I think you can play the noble righteous protector as well as the zealous inquisitor depending on how you choose to play them and what abilities you take. (I love that, thanks to Kits, you could go Cloak and Dagger and be a kind of secretive "left hand of the church" who quietly silences its enemies).

Censors actually have two separate subclass-like systems. Like Conduits, they interact with divine domains, though they only pick one. In many cases, they get the same features a Conduit gains from their domains, but you also have a more standard subclass.

Censors naturally focus a bit more on single-target damage thanks to their Judgment ability (which we'll get to,) and are inherently a bit self-sacrificial (notably, they get more recoveries than other classes, for a reason that will become clear when we get into core features).

Might and Presence are your primary characteristics, always at the highest level you could have them at, starting at 2.

Subclasses:

In addition to choosing a domain of your god, you also pick one of three subclasses.

Exorcists focus on hunting down hidden enemies.

Oracles broadly open their awareness to supernatural corruption.

Paragons act as examples and leaders to inspire their allies.

Heroic Resource: Wrath

As with all heroic resources, when combat starts you gain Wrath equal to your victories. You also get 2 at the start of each turn. The first time each combat round that a creature you have judged (we'll talk Judgment in a bit) deals damage to you, you gain 1 Wrath, and the first time each round you deal damage to them, you gain 1 Wrath.

Judgment is a maneuver you can use to place your judgment on a target within 10 squares, which lasts until you end the effect (no action,) you use the ability again, or another Censor judges them. When a judged creature uses a main action and is within your line of effect, you can use a free triggered action to deal holy damage to them equal to twice your presence score. If a creature that is judged drops to 0 Stamina, you can use a free triggered action to move the effect to another target.

Additionally, when an adjacent creature judged by you starts to shift, you can spend 1 Wrath to make a melee free strike against them and their speed becomes 0 until the end of the turn, preventing the shift. Also, if the judged creature is within 10 squares and makes a power roll, you can spend 1 Wrath to give them a bane on the power roll. When a judged creature within 10 squares uses an ability with a potency that targets only one creature, you can spend a wrath to reduce the potency by 1 for that creature. And if you damage a judged creature with a melee ability, you can spend 1 Wrath to taunt them until the end of your next turn. (You can only use one of these options on the same trigger).

Each subclass also adds additional functionality to the Judgment maneuver.

Censors get a Kit, as well.

My Life for Yours is a triggered action that you can use on yourself or an ally within 10 squares. When the target starts their turn or takes damage, you can spend one of your recoveries and heal the target for your recovery value (notably, this means you might heal up a lower-stamina ally for more than what they'd normally get with one of their recoveries). You can also spend 1 Wrath to end an effect that calls for a saving throw, or ends on the end of their turn, or allow a prone target to stand up. (Remember that we get a few more recoveries to help fuel this).

Your divine domain also gives you a feature, which I believe are all the same as the Conduit ones (though you only have a single domain). Each also grants a skill from an appropriate group.

You pick one class signature ability, as well as a 3-Wrath and a 5-Wrath ability. (Most are melee, though some can be ranged, and there's a small number that are pure ranged).

At level 2, you get a perk (interpersonal/lore/supernatural) as well as a pair of subclass features, as well as a choice of 5-Wrath abilities from your subclass.

At level 3, you get Look On My Work and Despair. When you use Judgment, you can spend 1 Wrath, and if the target has a Presence less than your average potency (less than 1 at this level) the are frightened of you (save ends). Also, when a judged creature is reduced to 0 stamina and you use the free triggered action version of Judgment, if the new target has Presence less than your strong potency (less than 2 currently) they are frightened of you (save ends). If they're already frightened of you, they take holy damage equal to twice your presence score instead.

Also at 3, you get a 7-Wrath ability.

At 4, your Might and Presence increase to 3, you get a perk and a skill of your choice, and you now gain 2 Wrath when you deal damage to a judged creature, up from 1.

You also get a new feature form your domain.

At 5, you gain a new subclass feature and your choice of 9-Wrath heroic ability.

At 6, you get Implement of Wrath. When you finish a respite, you can choose one hero's weapons (including your own) to make it magical and gain the following benefits until your next respite: The weapon deals extra holy damage equal to the wielder's highest characteristic. A creature with holy weakness and has Presence less than your strong potency is frightened and weakened (save ends). A minion targeted by a strike using the weapon just dies, and that minion's maximum stamina is removed from the minion stamina pool beofre any damage is applied to the rest of the squad. Finally, the wielder of the weapon cannot be frightened.

You also gain a new interpersonal/lore/supernatural perk, and you get a new 9-Wrath ability from your subclass.

At 7, your characteristics all go up by 1, to a maximum of 4.

You also gain a new divine domain feature.

You also now get 3 wrath at the start of each turn, up from 2. You also get a skill of your choice.

At 8, you get a perk of your choice and a new subclass feature. You also get an 11-Wrath heroic ability.

At 9, you get Improved Implement of Wrath, which adds benefits to your Implement of Wrath. The affected weapon now grants the wielder and allies a +2 bonus to saving throws. At the end of each of the wielder's turns, each adjacent ally can make a saving throw against an effect on them ended by a saving throw. Finally, the wielder has corruption immunity 10.

You also gain a new 11-Wrath heroic ability from your subclass.

Finally, at 10, your Might and Presence are now 5. You gain a skill of your choice, and a crafting/lore/supernatural perk of your choice as well.

You also gain Templar. Now, when you use your Judgment ability, you can use a free triggered action to use a conduit domain effect associated with your divine domain, or one you access via Virtue (which we'll get to). If the effect would refer to your Intuition score, you can use your Presence score instead. If it uses your Conduit level, you use your Censor level instead.

Additionally, when you take a respite, you can open a portal to rest in the presence of your deity and ask it three questions, which the deity will answer truthfully if they know the answers (though they can be cryptic). While in their presences, your deity might give you priority targets to bring to justice. You and your allies have a double edge on power rolls against such targets, but if you try to return to your deity before dealing with them, you will be subject to your deity's wrath (something for the Director to come up with).

Your Epic Resource is Virtue, which you gain in equal amounts to the XP you earn when you finish a respite. You can spend Virtue as if it were wrath. Also, you can spend 3 virtue to access one of your deity's domains that aren't the one you usually have access to. You can then use those domain features until you finish your next respite.

Finally, Wrath of the Gods now grants you 4 wrath at the start of your turn.

    So there you have it, the nine core classes for Draw Steel.

Once again, now that I've finished this series, I wonder how helpful it would be to players trying to decide which class to play. The core of your gameplay is going to be your abilities, but you'll always have choices in which ones to go with - even two Exorcist Censors could have a totally different suite of signature and heroic abilities (even when you get a heroic ability from your subclass, you have a choice between two).

Each choice point doesn't overwhelm you with options - usually you have no more than 4 or 5 to choose between (and again, subclass abilities are always a choice between just two options). But it does mean that your character can play a very different role in your group depending on what you choose to specialize in.

Personally, the classes that seem most exciting to me, if I were to play as a PC (good luck with that, me!) are the Shadow, Talent, and possibly Troubadour. But I do appreciate that they all get pretty wild in the higher levels

An Appreciation of Silent Hill 2's Combat Mechanics

 In my writing about Silent Hill 2 Remake, I've mostly focused on story. I don't think much is drastically changed from the 2001 original, but it's relatively new to me (though its biggest plot reveal is also something I've known about through pop culture osmosis for a long time).

However, I wanted to talk about something that I really appreciate regarding its gameplay mechanics.

In her (sponsored) video about Silent Hill f (lowercase intentional,) YouTuber Miss Chalice (whose videos on Elden Ring brought her to my attention) talked about the way that this new game uses weapon degradation, and how she liked it more as a gameplay mechanic than she does in most games. Her reasoning: in most games, you have ammunition to conserve, but given that f is set in Japan, you don't get any firearms or ranged weapons of any kind, so the weapon durability is, effectively, your ammo.

This is an interesting take, and one that I think does a good job justifying a hoary gameplay mechanic.

But it's great that 2 Remake doesn't have anything like that.

Broadly speaking, I think game designers should probably consider making more mechanically simple games. Going back to video gaming's roots, a game like Super Mario Bros. only had a small handful of inputs - you could move left and right, push down to go into a pipe, press one button to jump and one to run or shoot off fireballs if you had the Fire Flower.

Now, games' growing complexity is part of the way that the medium has matured, to be sure. But I think technical limitations have more or less vanished when it comes to game complexity. Logistical complications are, of course, still a factor.

In 2023, after playing Control, I got Alan Wake's remastered release, anticipating the sequel that was due later that year. Playing the 2010 game, I was struck by how simple it was - there were no skill trees to upgrade, and each chapter just reset things, so that there wasn't really any inventory management to consider. You were just sent out to get through the story of that chapter.

Again, I haven't played the original version of Silent Hill 2, but I appreciated that in its remake, there were relatively few gameplay systems to learn. You get three guns over the course of the game, each of which comes with its own type of ammo, and you get two kinds of healing items, one of which heals for far more, but is rarer.

And you get a melee weapon.

Here's what I find so perfect about the melee weapon. And yes, I'll once again invoke the Boss Baby meme and compare this with Alan Wake II.

In AWII, if you run out of ammo and if you run out of batteries for your flashlight, you basically can't kill your enemies. There is a melee strike, but it's so pitiful in damage that it's primarily there to just give you an opening to run away from a foe, or potentially to knock them back to get a cleaner shot if you do have ammo for your guns.

Now, I've seen a lot of people talking about how they made it through the remake with tons of ammo left over and never dying, and let me tell you: that was not me. In particular, I remember a stretch of the Otherworld Hospital where I was at super-low health with zero ammo and zero healing items and just having to be very, very careful.

But I had a steel pipe. And that meant that as bad as things got, I still had something to defend myself with.

In AWII, at least on the normal and easier difficulties, if you're really low on ammo and healing items, Taken and Restless Shadows will start dropping items. But, of course, if you don't have the means to kill your foes in the first place, you're not going to get those. Primarily, I think the recommended strategy is to run from your foes if you don't have what it takes to kill them. (The fact that turning off your flashlight makes them less likely to notice you really helps.)

But SH2R does two major things that I think allows them to avoid such contrivances (I do think that items are more likely to spawn if you're low, though I can't remember if that's only in boss arenas. Either way, I think these spawning items are less obvious because they're still in the drawers and lockers that you'd find the guaranteed items anyway).

The first is that the melee weapon is pretty effective. I think something like 4 hits with the pipe will take down a Mannequin, which is only one more hit than the handgun takes (on standard difficulty). The only reason not to just rely on your melee weapon is that you run the risk of getting hit by the thing you're fighting. While Lying Figures can spit bile at you, the other monsters generally don't have ranged attacks (I guess you could count the Mandarins' tongues as one as well, but I didn't actually even realize you could kill the non-boss ones and just ran past them). That means that you still might prefer to shoot them and burn that ammunition because you might be able to kill them before they get close enough to hurt you. Nurses in particular are quite tough, but have a head for you to shoot that takes extra damage (I don't know if the other monsters have such weak points).

The other thing that makes this work is that James' dodge is very effective. I believe it has invincibility frames, meaning that it's all about timing, and if you can read the monsters' tells right, you'll avoid damage from their attacks.

While games like Expedition 33 or Souls-likes compensate for the ability to avoid all incoming damage by making tells very hard to read and making a hit landing do staggeringly enormous amounts of damage, SH2R can get away with being very stingy with healing items.

Every time you fight a monster, you have the tools to avoid taking any damage. Indeed, the low diversity of enemy types even makes it easier to learn their moves and how to dodge them.

The survival horror genre, I think, builds its tension more on the slow draining of resources than some sudden catastrophic instant-death. By giving you all the tools to avoid incoming damage, it makes it that much scarier when you flub a dodge and wind up taking a Mannequin leg to the face. Even if that only takes out a 10th of your hidden HP pool, those errors add up.

I think about how I struggle sometimes when running D&D games to give my players a challenging but fair adventure. The existence of a reliable-if-you-have-the-skill dodge and a reasonably-effective-and-unexhaustible melee weapon mean that the game never has to worry about putting you in a state where you just cannot continue.

And I think that's good design.

Something I Missed in Alan Wake II that Portends Control 2

 It's been almost a year since Alan Wake II's Lakehouse DLC, and nearly two years since the release of the game. While I haven't gone back and played through it again after finishing The Final Draft (new game plus,) it has sat with me all this time as one of my favorite narratives in a video game.

I have to confess: I'm a sucker for a good mystery box, even if they can often lead to disappointing endings. I watched Lost through college and a bit past it, and was very into the Battlestar Galactica remake at the same time, both of which had endings that seemed to kind of veer off in directions I wasn't terribly interested in.

In a bizarre way, though, the mystery boxes coming from Remedy's games seem to promise us that some things won't be answered (this is also true of FromSoft's souls-like games, though in that case, it's like "we ain't explaining anything here. Answers? You don't even know what questions to ask!") and this makes me kind of feel oddly inoculated against being disappointed in endings. I know that the "RCU" is only getting started, and for sure doesn't have an endgame in mind.

But there are hints of what is coming.

Now, while they're never made a significant part of the game's story, anyone who played Control and did any delving into its hidden lore will be well-aware of The Blessed Organization.

This para-criminal group (basically criminals who use altered items and objects of power) has mysterious goals, but we know that they're dangerous - they sent a deadly altered item to a radio station run (secretly) by the FBC, which killed an agent. And they seem to have distributed other altered items that have gotten innocent people hurt.

Two characters closely tied to Alan have connections to The Blessed Organization. Most directly is Barry Wheeler. Barry, Alan's agent and best friend (and lovable sidekick from the first game), traveled to Los Angeles after Alan's apparent death to act as executive producer on the adaptations of the Alex Casey novels, seeking to ensure A: that Alice Wake was taken care of financially and B: to ensure that the movies did justice to Alan's novels.

However, in going to Los Angeles, Barry met with Chester Bless, the likely leader and founder of the organization.

Barry seems to think of it as some kind of Hollywood social club, though he describes it as cult-like even as he downplays the creepiness of that possibility. (I assume that it probably takes a similar form to Scientology, an infamous cult that has a lot of members in the entertainment industry that did, notably, effect the largest ever infiltration of the FBI.)

Now, the connection that Alice might have to the Blessed Organization is a bit more tenuous. When we find the Wakes' apartment the last time in Alan's campaign, we find it totally packed up and emptied. The cardboard boxes into which things have been packed all say "Blessed" on them.

Now, of course, that might not actually relate to Alice directly because Barry might have been the one to see to the apartment being packed up after Alice's apparent (though thankfully not actual) suicide.

In one of her videos, Alice talks about meeting members of an organization that helped her regain her repressed memories from her time in the Dark Place (back in 2010). Every single YouTube content creator I've watched has assumed that this meant the FBC, and that she's describing the time she came into the Oldest House (she lived in New York, after all) and inadvertently sent The Thing That Had Been Hartman into his frenzy that destroyed the Investigations Sector.

I, however, have always held the idea that while Alice clearly did visit the FBC, she may not have gotten the answers that she wanted. And that Barry had arranged for her to meet with others studying the paranatural, i.e. the Blessed Organization, and maybe even Chester Bless himself. I think it's not an accident that Alice refers to the people who helped her as an "organization." Not, like a government agency or bureau. A word we see used repeatedly to describe this para-criminal group.

The Blessed Organization clearly has some understanding of these paranatural principles - they're not the well-meaning chucklefucks that the Cult of the Tree were. And I could imagine that they would find helping someone like Alice advantageous to their goals.

Alice, of course, has a dark edge to her - we've seen her, with the best intentions I'm sure, manipulate Alan multiple times: lying to him about why they were going to Bright Falls, and faking her death and allowing him to believe he had driven her to suicide. We know so little about the ultimate aims of the Blessed Organization.

But we might have a bit of a hint that I had totally missed:

Actually, before we get to that, let's talk about the Lake House DLC. While mostly a side-story that doesn't have enormous implications for Alan's story, largely self-contained, there is a really major hint for Control 2, which is when Estevez travels through the Oceanview Motel and Casino into the Oldest House, briefly, and meets with Dylan Faden.

Dylan refers to some kind of failure to prevent some catastrophe. While he seems free of the Hiss, or at least keeping it under control, there's something deeply wrong. And we get a series of visions that show something very crazy happening to New York City - some kind of containment breach, with things like The Mold and possibly the Hiss (though I really hope that after Firebreak we can move on to other threats - I don't want Control to be "the series where we fight the Hiss" given that it seems open to so many more possibilities) breaking out, but also the city folding in on itself.

It seems very likely from what tiny previews we've gotten that Control 2 will probably take us out into the city.

And that's where this email stands out:

Chester Bless told Barry that it was a good thing that he wasn't in New York anymore, because "something bad" would have happened to him if he had stayed.

Now, ok, sure: that's it. That's the thing that prompted this post.

But I think this really seems to confirm a lot about what is going on in Control 2. Something catastrophic is coming, and given his advanced knowledge about it, it seems highly possible that the Blessed Organization is behind it (I'll allow that it could be that they just know about it coming).

We don't know why Bless is gunning for the FBC. He does seem to have some connection to the Board - he pops up originally on the FBC's radar when he runs self-help talks that use a Surf Board altered item (or possibly an OOP) and cheekily refers to his methods giving people the "power of the board."

We know from Foundation that the Board sure seems shady - possibly more like a parasitic force upon the Oldest House and the FBC. The Former is in conflict with the Board, but even if our first interactions with it are hostile, it's also quite helpful to us later on. The Board does still have a lot of control (heh) over the FBC, but given that Jesse does not seem as pliant as Trench and Ashmore were, I wouldn't be shocked if Bless turned out to be some kind of contingency plan to destroy the FBC if it couldn't be controlled.

We do also know that the FBC has a deeply troubled and mixed history, often protecting people but also with several examples of abuse and overreach (you know, like most government agencies. Ever hear of J. Edgar Hoover?) I'm partially inclined to lend some benefit of the doubt to someone who would dedicate themselves to working against this agency (especially given what we saw in the Lakehouse - admittedly, the Marmonts were taking advantage of the Oldest House going silent for several years, but even someone as likable as Casper Darling did, you know, kidnap a child to put him through a dehumanizing training program). That said, I don't think we're going to get some reveal that the Blessed Organization are the good guys, actually, because we know that they've done things that have hurt civilians in very reckless ways.

And, you know, if they wind up causing some huge deadly catastrophe across the country's largest city, that's not, you know, the sort of thing that heroes do.

Anyway, this little snippet of an email doesn't really inspire a new theory, but it does feel like, especially with the context of Dylan's Lakehouse vision, near-confirmation that the Blessed Organization is going to play a big role in what happens in Control 2.

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Troubadour

 I actually think we're near the end here - of the nine extant classes, we have just this and the Censor.

The Troubadour is one of the clearer analogues for a D&D class: it's the Bard equivalent. Naturally, these comparisons ignore the significantly different gameplay systems, so actually playing one will likely feel fairly different.

Troubadours wield performance and art as a mind-affecting and indeed a reality-affecting form of magic. A versatile class, they have several features to aid in social encounters, but they can do a lot of other things as well.

Troubadours' primary characteristics are Agility and Presence, both starting at 2 and going up with each echelon of play.

Subclasses:

Troubadours have three subclasses, focusing on different "vibes" often associated with this sort of class.

Auteurs are actually the most out-there one: Auteurs break the fourth wall, treating their current adventure as a story that they're telling later, complete with the ability to rewrite and revise that story (this is basically the Alan Wake subclass, so I'm here for it).

Duelists focus on martial abilities, weaving a dance-like art into their one-on-one combat style.

Virtuosos perform magic through music, with a lot of heavy metal-themed abilities.

Heroic Resource: Drama

Like all other classes, when combat starts, you gain Drama equal to your victories, and then 1d3 drama at the start of each of your turns. You also gain drama through various other ways once per combat: when three or more heroes use an ability on the same turn, you gain 2 drama. The first time a hero is winded during an encounter, you gain 2 drama. Whenever a creature within your line of effect rolls a natural 19 or 20, you gain 3 drama. And when you or another hero dies, you gain 10 drama.

Notably, Troubadours continue to gain drama during combat even if they're dead. If you have 30 drama during the encounter in which you died, you come back to life with 1 stamina and no drama (if the combat ends before you reach 30, you stay dead and don't gain drama during future encounters).

Troubadours, like Furies, Censors, Nulls, and Shadows, also get a kit of their choice. (So, yes, you could be a heavily-armored troubadour swinging a massive greataxe if you wanted).

Scene Partner is a feature that allows you to bond with an NPC if you are successful with a test to interact with them using an interpersonal skill. If you enter into a negotiation with that NPC, their patience increases by 1 (maximum of 5). Also, the first time you make an argument that would increase their interest in a negotiation by 1, you instead increase it by 2 (max 5, of course). You can maintain a number of bonds with NPCs equal to your level, and if you try to form a bond with a sixth, you choose whose bond you drop.

Routines are a feature you can activate at the beginning of each round of combat as long as you're not dazed, dead, or surprised, maintaining it or choosing a different one on each subsequent turn. You start off with a couple options, and gain more from your subclass. Each routine has some benefit, like giving your nearby allies more movement speed or letting allies spend a recovery at the end of each of your turns.

Each subclass gives you a routine, a special maneuver, and a triggered action.

You then pick a single signature ability (you get your other one from your kit) and a 3-drama and 5-drama heroic ability.

At level 2, you get Appeal to the Muses, which allows you to give a speech when you roll for drama at the start of your turns, with similar rewards and consequences as the Conduit's praying for extra Piety. If you roll a 1, you get 1 additional drama but the Director gains 1d3 Malice. If you roll a 2, you gain 1 Heroic Resource that you can keep or give to a nearby ally, but the Director also gains 1 Malice. If you roll a 3, you gain 2 Heroic resources to keep or distribute, but the Director doesn't gain anything.

You also get Invocation, giving you a choice of various features that can affect the way that battles start.

You also get an interpersonal, lore, or supernatural perk of your choice.

Finally, you get a 5-drama heroic ability from your subclass.

At level 3, you get a new subclass feature from your subclass and a 7-drama heroic ability of your choice.

At 4, your agility and presence go up to 3, and you get a perk and skill of your choice.

You also get Melodrama, which adds new ways to generate drama in combat. You choose two of the following triggers: Whenever a creature rolls a natural 2 on a power roll, you get 2 drama. The first time the director deals damage to a hero using a villain action or an ability that costs malice, you gain 2 drama. The first time in combat a hero unwillingly falls 5 or more squares, you gain 2 drama. The first time a hero deals damage with 3 surges, you gain two drama, and whenever a hero spends their last recovery, you gain 2 drama.

You can use both choices on the same event, or go back to one of the previous events as one of your choices. If you do, that event now generates 1 additional drama.

Also at 4, you get Zeitgeist, letting you gain one a few options that aid in gathering or spreading information when you finish a respite.

At level 5, you get a choice of new features from your subclass.

At 6, you get a new interpersonal/lore/supernatural perk.

You also get Spotlight, a new routine that gives you and allies an extra temporary heroic resource each turn.

You also get a 9-drama heroic ability from your subclass.

At 7, your characteristics all go up by 1, maximum of 4.

You also get Equal Billing, which allows you to use your Scene Partner feature with a fellow hero/PC, though only one hero at a time. Any creature you're bonded with gets a +1 bonus to saving throws, and when you or a bonded creature succeed on a save, you and each creature you're bonded with gains temp Stamina equal to your level.

A Muse's Muse increases the drama you gain at the start of your turn to 1d3+1.

And you get a skill of your choice.

At 8, you get a perk of your choice. You also get a subclass feature and your choice of a 11-drama heroic ability.

At 9, you get Roar of the Crowd, which prevents you from being frightened and you can stand up from prone as a free maneuver. Also, when you spend a recovery, you can forgo regaining stamina and instead give you and each ally within 3 squares temporary stamina equal to 10 + the number of bonds with yoru scene partners plus either your victories or the number of players in your game (whichever is higher).

You also get an 11-drama ability from your subclass.

At 10, you gain another interpersonal/lore/supernatural perk, your Agility and Presence go up to 5, you get a skill of your choice, and you gain a few other features.

Applause is your epic resource, which you gain equal to your XP when you finish a respite. You can spend Applause as if it were drama. When a creature within 3 squares would obtain a failure or a tier 1 outcome on a test, you can spend 1 applause to improve the outcome by 1 tier.

Dramaturgy gives you 1 additional drama or other heroic resource when you use Appeal to the Muses. Also, your performances no longer have a distance, and will apply to any space within the encounter within your line of effect.

Greatest of All Time lowers NPCs' impression scores by 1 each time you obtain a success on a test (to a minimum of 1) and each ally gains an edge on their next test, lasting until you start your next respite.

What if Silent Hill 2's "Leave" Ending is Just as Bad?

 So, while perhaps mentioning that there is such an ending counts as a spoiler, I don't think it would surprise anyone to learn that Silent Hill 2's "good" ending (among many bad and a few very silly endings) is called Leave. I mean, the game starts with James arriving in this cursed-as-fuck town, and naturally a lot of horror stories end with an escape from the realm of terror. Wendy and Danny Torrance get away from the Overlook Hotel, Jonathan Harker gets out of Castle Dracula (though admittedly that's just one portion of the story - his own little mini-horror movie experience at the start of the novel). Ripley makes it into the escape pod and leaves the Nostromo (again, there's a subversion because the monster follows her, but once it's kicked off, she's ok until the sequel).

Hm. Guess that's several other spoilers, but surely all of these are well past the statute of limitations, right? And one could argue that Silent Hill 2 is old enough to also be in that category.

But I wanted to just put some thoughts out there about this ending to the game, which certainly seems, tonally and emotionally, to be the game's happiest ending. What if it's not?

Let's do a spoiler cut.

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Conduit

 So, I'm hitting this class now and I'll let you know: this is probably the class I've looked the least into. I've never really been all that compelled by "priest" classes, especially when there's an opportunity to have a more knightly divine warrior like a Paladin or Draw Steel's Censor. That means that I'll be probably learning a lot more about this class in the reading and summarizing here than normal.

Conduits are called that because they act as conduits for the divine forces the work through them. They might be adherents of a Saint or a god, and work that being's will upon the world through divine magic. One of the core rules' three pure spellcasters (though Troubadours are on the cusp of counting as a fourth,) Conduits bring that holy (or unholy - though the game assumes that your character is a hero) power.

Conduits' main characteristic is Intuition, which will start at 2 and go up by 1 with each echelon of play.

One of the most interesting elements of the class is that subclasses work very differently. Divine beings each have a number of domains, such as Sun, Death, Love, Creation, etc. Both Censors and Conduits interact with these domains to get certain features (though Censors, which we'll cover in a later post, also have traditional subclasses). Conduits choose two of the domains their divine patron represents, taking features from those two choices as they level up.

It's essentially a "build your own subclass" toolbox.

The divine domains are:

Creation, Death, Fate, Knowledge, Life, Love, Nature, Protection, Storm, Sun, Trickery, and War.

Heroic Resource: Piety

Like with all other classes, when combat begins, you gain Piety equal to your victories, and you gain 1d3 Piety at the start of each of your turns (interestingly, this puts you on the more "chaotic" side of the classes, though I've also noticed that if you think of Nulls and Talents being the two psionic classes and Elementalists and Furies as the more elemental magic classes, each of which have one chaotic and one orderly resource generation, this likely balances the two divine magic classes, as Censors get the flat 2).

Conduits can choose before they roll for their Piety each turn to pray to the gods for more. Now, if you roll a 1 on the d3, you gain 1 additional Piety but take psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus your level (damage that cannot be reduced). If you roll a 2, you just gain the additional piety with no ill effects. If you roll a 3, you gain 2 additional piety and can activate a special prayer effect from one of your two domains.

Each domain has a passive piety generation effect, like most classes have. For example, if you have the Creation domain, you'll get 2 piety the first time in an encounter that a creature within 10 squares of you uses an area ability.

In addition to their special piety-generating features and prayer effects, you also get a feature from one of your chosen domains, as well as a skill from the group associated with that domain.

Healing Grace is a maneuver that all Conduits get at level 1, which can target yourself or an ally, with a range of 10. The target can spend a recovery, and you can spend piety to add benefits, spending one piety for each effect: You can target a second ally within distance, you can end one effect on the target that is ended by a saving throw or ends at the end of their turn, a prone target can stand up, or the target can spend an additional recovery.

Ray of Wrath is your magical ranged free strike, which allows you to deal your choice of untyped or holy damage to a creature or object.

You'll also choose a Triggered action at level 1, one of which grants allies edges to ability rolls for damage-dealing abilities, with the option to spend 1 piety to make it a double edge, or another that gives a bane to abilities that target an ally with a power roll, with the option to spend piety to give it a double bane.

You'll pick a Prayer (not to be confused with praying for piety) that grant things like greater range with ranged abilities, a bonus to rolled damage with magic abilities, higher speed, higher stamina and stability, or the option to wear armor and wield a weapon. You can swap your prayer as a respite activity.

Also, Conduits can choose a Ward, each of which give you various defensive bonuses, also swappable as a respite activity.

You'll pick two signature abilities and a 3-Piety and 5-Piety heroic ability.

At level 2, you get The Lists of Heaven, which allows you to spend a Recovery when you allow another creature to spend a recovery.

You also get a crafting, lore, or supernatural perk.

Also at 2, you get a 5-piety heroic ability from one of your two domains.

At level 3, you get Minor Miracle, which allows you to bring a creature who died in the last 24 hours (from an effect not related to age) back to life as a respite activity. The creature's soul must be willing (you'll understand immediately if they aren't, and can do a different respite activity if that's the case). The revived creature returns to life at the end of the respite with full stamina, but only half their recoveries, and you regain only half your recoveries at the end of this respite.

Also at 3, you pick a 7-Piety heroic ability.

At level 4, you get Blessed Domain, increasing the piety gained by your domain features by 1.

Also, your Intuition goes up to 3, and you can increase another characteristic by 1 (to a maximum of 3).

You also get a perk and a skill of your choice.

Also at level 4, you gain one feature from one of your domains.

At level 5, you get to pick the domain feature you could have gotten at level 4 from your other domain. You also get your choice of 9-piety heroic ability.

At level 6, you get Burgeoning Saint. This comes with several benefits as you are infused with divine power. You get an edge on presence tests to interact with other creatures, you can spend a recovery whenever you deal damage to an enemy, you have your choice of corruption or holy immunity 10, and your clothing and equipment change in a way that reflects your deity's chosen champion.

You also get a crafting, lore, or supernatural perk of your choice.

You also get a 9-piety heroic ability from one of your two domains.

At level 7, all of your characteristics go up by 1, maximum of 4. You also now gain 1d3+1 piety at the start of each of your turns. You also get a skill of your choice.

Finally, at 7, you gain another feature from one of your two domains.

At level 8, you get a perk of your choice, and you get the level 7 feature from your other domain. You also choose an 11-piety heroic ability.

At level 9, you get Faith's Sword. When you finish a respite, you can choose a willing hero (player) ally who finished that respite with you. They get the benefits of your Burgeoning Saint feature until you finish another respite. Also, you can spend piety as a free maneuver to give that hero 1 of their heroic resource for every 2 you spend.

You also get Ordained, allowing you to treat your characteristics as 1 higher for the purpose of resisting potencies. When you have 5 or more Victories, you get a double-edge on presence tests to influence other creatures.

Also at 9, you get one 11-piety heroic ability from one of your domains.

Finally, at level 10, you get Avatar. You can now be affected by three different Prayers at once (and can swap all of them as a respite activity). You can also use a maneuver to activate a domain effect without needing to pray. Additionally, when you take a respite, you can open a portal to rest in the presence of your deity and bring any allies. When you do so, you can ask the deity three questions, which the Director will answer honestly if the deity knows the answer. When you finish the respite, you and your allies can appear anywhere in the Timescape where someone worships your deity.

Also, your Intuition goes up to 5 and another characteristic increases by 1 (maximum of 5).

Your epic resource is Divine Power - you gain one for each XP you earn at the end of a respite. This can be spent as if it were Piety. You can spend this even to use as Piety for conduit abilities you don't have (if the ability doesn't cost any piety, you'll need to spend 1 divine power if you don't already have it).

Most Pious gives you 1 additional piety when you roll for it at the start of your turn (so 1d3+2, or more if you're praying for more).

And you get a skill and a crafting/lore/supernatural perk of your choice.

    It's interesting: especially when you get to level 10, you'll really need to have a good sense of all the options that this class has available to it. Conduits have, I think, unparalleled support abilities, and while "healers" in Draw Steel are a little unconventional, this class certainly excels at that.