I can’t find anything concrete online, but my assumption is that it has to do with the adventure / module design.

Consider a scenario where the party is going to go kill a lich, but first must delve into the lich’s lair before they may fight.

“Prophet” being that the party is forearmed with the knowledge of what the final encounter will be - and perhaps some intelligence on the dungeon.

“Squeeze” where the party has encounters that drain their resources. Those grenades / fireballs are going to be handy for fighting the lich, but they’re also useful for dealing with the lich’s zombie army.

“Monster” where the party finally encounters the prophesied monster and fights the lich.

I’ve never heard this trope named this way, but it’s how so many dungeons and adventures are designed. The party knows they have a particular fight coming up, and must carefully manage their resources because they won’t be having that fight at full strength.

TTRPGs are quite diverse, but generally speaking they follow a similar formula. Traditionally, play takes place around a table, but even that’s negotiable. Many people play exclusively online these days.

Depending on the system you choose to play, accessories such as minis and battlemats could be optional. However, if you favour a tactical game and want to engage with all the combat rules, they do become more important.

There’s always alternatives though. I don’t keep minis for all my creatures - as a DM, who could afford to? Personally I use paper tokens because they’re easy to whip up and doodle on. Many people use coins, legos, or colored blocks. Anything can stand as a proxy of it’s the right size. There are tales of people who use candy so players can eat what they kill.

Another option, particularly if you go for the online option, is to use a Virtual Tabeletop (VTT). This is software that simulates your table, battlemat, minis, and generally facilitates play. I find them complicated and kind of fiddly, but a lot of people like them.

At the end of the day, you don’t need all that. There’s a concept of play called the Theater of the Mind where players use their shared imagination instead of any accessories. It’s easier when there aren’t a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but if you prefer a narratively focused game then it’s a good way to play.

As far as how to play the game, that’s up to the individual system. However generally speaking you play by having a conversation. The DM describes a situation and then asks “What do you do?” Players then describe their actions. Turn-taking can be more or less rigid depending on the situation. In D&D in particular, turns become much more formal during combat where players take turns in Initiative Order.

Generally speaking, near the start of the rule book (if you have one) there will be an Example of Play. This is usually styled as a transcript of a conversation between players. I always thought those were neat, and they dona pretty good job of showing how a game might play

Getting into the hobby can be intimidating because there are a lot of rules in certain systems, and it can be hard to keep track of them all.

Almost all systems include (or should include) Rule Zero, or Have Fun - the most important rule of all.

If you’re running the game then all rules are optional. As long as everyone is having fun then you can play however you want.

Anyway, I ramble a lot, but I’ve been playing these games for a long time. You’re in for a fun new hobby, good luck getting your group together!

“Win if you can, lose if you must, but always, always cheat.”

I’m told this creed is an invention of a family member, but if I’m following the message it’s almost certainly stolen from somewhere.

I’m also a big fan of “Anything worth doing is a worth doing half-assed”

The licensing is going to depend largely on what model or service you use. I imagine the website will have an About or License page which will detail your uses.

If the license isn’t permissive, it would be somewhat ironic since it’s an open secret in the industry that those models are trained with stolen images.

Asking this question on lemmy is probably going to give you a spicy time. Many of us despise AI.

Can I use it as inspiration and make my own assets that are similar but not the same?

Legally, I don’t imagine this would give you a problem. You’d be using the prompt as a reference and then creating your own assets. The generated image is likely to be watermarked in some way, so I’d recommend tracing it.

I’d really recommend you drop AI and run though. I suppose many people don’t really care, but in the indie gaming community you could be burning a lot of goodwill by using it

If you’re considering assets, you can get free ones from Kenney or Open Game Art. They might not meet all your needs, but they’re an excellent tool for prototyping or supplementing your other assets

Well of course the victim is going to play the victim. That’s just good marketing - and what is marketing if not propaganda?

Your comment reads as though the invading state’s actions aren’t propaganda. This is the whole reason why I came here to warn people to be skeptical of what they read online.

In an ironic twist, here’s an online source about the Russian disinformation campaign telling citizens that if you play Stalker 2 you’ll be drafted to fight in Ukraine against Russia.

Again, you should be skeptical of what you read online. In a vacuum, I’m inclined to believe the victim of invasion. In reality, I know that the situation is more nuanced - although the credibility of the aggressor is extremely suspect.

For what it’s worth, my impression on the game is that it’s yet another over-hyped game that couldn’t possibly live up to its expectations. The developers are financially incentivized to deflect that criticism through any means available to them. But that doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge that malicious actors are also trying to discredit the game.

They’ll pay you peanuts to protect their gold. The only gold trickling down is a shower

People in traffic often seem to be in a big hurry and drive recklessly so that they can end up waiting at the same red light as you

I recently started a new job which I think is going to destroy my health. Standing on concrete all day, ugh.

So to counter the incoming joint pain, I’m doing lots of stretches and yoga. Bringing lunch from home is also helping the diet, that should hopefully pay off.

Ironically, I took this job because I thought it would be better for my mental health. Less stress, gets me out of my basement (I was working from home), and it’s much more physically active.

But gosh, my bones hurt. I might have to leave this job too for my health. Maybe the lesson here is that working for the man is bad for your health

I haven’t played Stalker 2 so I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but it’s very politically charged and has Russian state sponsored disinformation campaigns running against it. I’m not sure that you can get a truly accurate read of it online.

The developers are Ukrainian, and development had to be paused because their office literally turned into a warzone. The fact that the game came out at all is extremely based, and that certainly adds to the mythology around the game. But again, I haven’t played it, and gameplay-wise that doesn’t actually indicate anything about the game.

I want the game to succeed because of the developers’ existential struggle. The people causing that existential struggle want the game to fail. Neither of us have actually played the game, so again, there’s all this bias around it and we haven’t even looked at gameplay yet.

Be skeptical of anything you read online

Did that one make you laugh? Because I’m definitely stealing this

What tool are we going to use to measure the bias of the bias meter?

This might technically count as physical, but when drawing or writing I really hate the texture of some tools or mediums

Dull pencils, dry markers, cardboard, chalkboards (or maybe just chalk) all make me super uncomfortable.

It’s hard to describe. It’s like getting shivers, I hate the sound and feel of it

Same, fam

It’s never easy, but it does get easier

Unless it doesn’t, but hey, I don’t want to worry you

It’s fortunate where I live that poison control just uses the standard emergency services number.

I can’t imagine how hard it must be to recall the number during an emergency where time is a factor. Particularly if the number is like 0118 999 881 999 119 725… 3

I hope your kids are okay

I forget which king it was (I’m sure someone here will tell me) but his solution was to divide his kingdom among his two heirs.

So the idea was that one heir would do the dividing and the other heir would then pick which kingdom they wanted.

This is a great solution to making sure people share a cookie / snack / etc fairly. The divider has an incentive to keep things as fair as possible.

I think this ended in civil war though, so your mileage may vary

Correctamundo!

Not yet

That’s an odd way to ask for clarity when you’re looking for help

Squeaker, Fire-belly, Poison Dart, Ghost, Parsley

That’s crazy, how can somebody not know what brand of laptop they…

HOLY SHIT ME TOO

I think the answer depends on how you define art.

Like, the artist in me wants to have a discussion about the appeal of abstraction versus impressionism, and whether you should compromise your artistic vision for the sake of commercial success.

The pessimist in me says that the most popular physical art is probably Pokemon trading cards and other merch.

“Physical Art” is a pretty broad category because there’s still a million mediums you can choose from. Would making prints of digital art count as physical art? That might be a question for the philosophers.

Anyway, if you’re looking to break into the scene then you should probably visit some craft fairs / galleries / tourist traps and see what they’re selling. Talk to the artists in the medium you want to explore.