The GWJ CRPG Club - Retirement Home

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For more information on the GWJ CRPG Club - go here.

Welcome to the CRPG Club Retirement Home, the place to finish up and get Level Up credit for older games that our club is no longer actively playing together!

How does this work?
If you’d like to get CRPG Club Level Up credit for a game we’re not playing as a group anymore, post in here that you’re playing the game currently, your status, and share a few posts of your progress along the way. When you’re done, let us know and we’ll level you up.

Fine Print
The idea behind the club is shared experience, so this isn’t a place to post, “Hey, I finished The Witcher 3 in 2016, Level me up!” The goal is that you’ll play the game currently and that you’ll share progress along the way. Think how inspiring you’ll be! Having said that, this isn’t the Spanish Inquisition, so if leveling up in a digital game club is somehow super important to your self esteem, I’m not asking for proof that you finished the game. It’d be pretty easy to fool me.

If you started playing one of our CRPG games when we all were playing it, didn’t finish in time, but then finished your game after our official time frame, just post in here that you did that and we’ll level you up.

If you’ve got a game you’ve started already, or didn’t finish from our regular play through, you can just pick up with that game from where you left off. No need to go back to the beginning. Just post and share some things and finish.

Our Retirement Home Games
01 - Dragonfall
02 - Pillars of Eternity
03 - Jade Empire
04 - Divinity: Original Sin
05 - Dragon Age: Origins
06 - Arcanum
07 - Baldur's Gate
08 - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
09 - The Witcher 3
10 - Divinity Original Sin 2
11 - Wasteland 2
12 - Banner Saga
13 - Tyranny
14 - Disco Elysium
15 - The Outer Worlds
16 - Torment: Tides of Numenera

Retirement Home Success Stories
pyxistyx - Divinity Original Sin 2
math - Dragonfall
*Legion* - Witcher 3
Pillars of Eternity - benign1
Banner Saga - benign1

Players Currently Playing
Godzilla Blitz - Vampire: The Masquerade
blackanchor - Witcher 3
Felix Threepaper - Witcher 3

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Having said that, this isn’t the Spanish Inquisition, so if leveling up in a digital game club is somehow super important to your self esteem, I’m not asking for proof that you finished the game. It’d be pretty easy to fool me.

But! This is the keyboard warrior internet. And! You wield the thread ruling power. I think my brain may have just short circuited. Empathy. Trust. What are these doing here?

Spoiler:

Tagging with a giggle!

I'm in! Posting to get updates, but yeah, I will eventually get around to some of the ones I didn't get to finish or partake in with the rest of the Goojer crew and post my thoughts here. Dunno why, but I really got a kick out of the banner image.

I plan on playing Dragonfall someday. Making this post to remind myself.

Math wrote:

I plan on playing Dragonfall someday. Making this post to remind myself. :)

That was one of my favorites, for sure. And not very long, either.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Dunno why, but I really got a kick out of the banner image.

Ha, thanks!

RnRClown wrote:

But! This is the keyboard warrior internet. And! You wield the thread ruling power. I think my brain may have just short circuited. Empathy. Trust. What are these doing here?

Watch, we'll probably have 100 people claiming they finished all 10 games in a week.

Joking aside, I'm pretty confident it'll all work out fine here. Good people in this little corner of the world.

I'm going to put my name down for Vampire: The Masquerade. I re-installed this evening. I didn't get past character creation when we played as a group, so I started over with the tutorial this evening. Even with the dated graphics, it's caught my attention. The writing and voice-acting are impressive so far.

I think I'm going to nibble away at the game, just try to move forward a few hours a week. It's less than 30 hours, so I'm hopeful I can finish by the end of the year.

Playing the Witcher 3. Started it sometime ago, didn't make it far, and just got back to it. I'll post updates as I progress.

blackanchor wrote:

Playing the Witcher 3. Started it sometime ago, didn't make it far, and just got back to it. I'll post updates as I progress.

Good luck! That's another one that I didn't make it through. I'm hoping to revisit that one at some point. I'd love to be able to finish it.

i actually fired up Divinity os 2 again since, (a) i was in need something to distract me from playing BG3 while it remains unfinished and (b) I had a hankering to try a solo character run. So...i guess i'm back to playing that again! At least until i hit a difficulty spike that even story mode cant get me past.

pyxistyx wrote:

i actually fired up Divinity os 2 again since, (a) i was in need something to distract me from playing BG3 while it remains unfinished and (b) I had a hankering to try a solo character run. So...i guess i'm back to playing that again! At least until i hit a difficulty spike that even story mode cant get me past.

Nice! Good luck! That was another one of my failures. I got viciously stuck in the second main area and was too stubborn to turn on story mode. I should just turn on story mode when I get back to it.

making ridiculously fast progress actually. I'm already in the third (fourth?) Act having just arrived in Arx. I reckon unless i hit some ridiculous dead end (I'm thinking the final boss fight which was a nightmare first time around) then things are looking good for me actually finishing this thing.

Any progress in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an achievement in my book. Way to go.

The character creation screen was my first impasse. The analysis paralysis was mighty. It was proper ridiculous. Anyway. Then the two tier armour system wrecked havoc with my team synergy. Which in turn saw battles become nigh on never-ending. It poured cold water on that turn based phase. I hankered for real-time with pause once more.

I really, really liked the world, and the characters, and the music, and the voice acting. I just couldn't gel with the nuts and bolts to make any progress. Where as Divinity: Original Sin saw me infatuated with the nuts and bolts and loathe most everything else.

What sort of character are you rolling with, Pyxi?

Mostly a mix of necromancy and the rogue skills, but with a little mix of other skills thrown in. With the lone wolf perk you basically get double the skill points to spend as the skills advance 2 at a time so it's been easy to max out my main choices.

I am also dropping to story mode for some of the more Challenging fights which helps speed things up too. I dont think I'd have gotten this far without that option.

I'm impressed with the lone wolf approach you've undertaken. I honestly thought (even on story mode) that a solo journey would be too challenging, or too frustrating, due to the turn based nature, as well as fewer friendlies to take some of the heat. Good to learn otherwise. Thanks!

There were definitely times when Story Mode rescued the game for me. Every time I'm tempted by the Lone Wolf thing, though, I think about all the companion dialog I'd miss out on, and I just can't.

FInished Divinity 2! Sort of!

Once i hit the last act, Arx the difficulty ramped up a LOT which made solo mode a little on the tiresome side, and there was a lot more effects which basically stun-locked me for the entire combat. I could probably have worked through it eventually but i kinda just wanted to get through it so i used a mod to boost my level a bit to give me a bit of an advantage.

But, got through to the end again, so i'm calling that done

I really like this idea a lot, and it could help put me over the edge on a couple of games (Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate) that I started for the club but never finished. I've also been wanting to try out Dragonfall, and recently got it through Epic. But probably, I'll have to finish some other things first!

pyxistyx wrote:

FInished Divinity 2! Sort of!

Once i hit the last act, Arx the difficulty ramped up a LOT which made solo mode a little on the tiresome side, and there was a lot more effects which basically stun-locked me for the entire combat. I could probably have worked through it eventually but i kinda just wanted to get through it so i used a mod to boost my level a bit to give me a bit of an advantage.

But, got through to the end again, so i'm calling that done

Congrats on making it to the end and being our first member to Level Up via the Retirement Home! This is quite fitting, as you were also our first member to complete our first game. EPIC!

I was on Steam the other day and saw that you were plugging away at it. Nice work! I can imagine some of those fights get crazy hard with one character, as you mention.

I'm starting my Dragonfall game in the sense that I am starting my Shadowrun Returns game, after which I will do Dragonfall.

I may end up playing Wasteland 2 over here if I can't make it by the buzzer at the end of the month.

brokenclavicle wrote:

I may end up playing Wasteland 2 over here if I can't make it by the buzzer at the end of the month.

Awesome. I really liked that one. I mean, the second half was a little rough on the edges, but I just had so much fun playing.

Math wrote:

I'm starting my Dragonfall game in the sense that I am starting my Shadowrun Returns game, after which I will do Dragonfall.

That series is so tight, never overstays its welcome. Dragonfall was one of my favorite games that we've played.

I've got to get back to Vampire. I've drifted a bit lately.

I'm about 6 hours into Shadowrun Returns and am enjoying myself. It's very tightly paced both in story and in gameplay, which is a nice change from some sprawling CRPGs we've played. If I have any complaints they are that the game is pretty unchallenging (at least thus far) and that interacting with characters/objects in the environment is clunky.

Math wrote:

I'm about 6 hours into Shadowrun Returns and am enjoying myself. It's very tightly paced both in story and in gameplay, which is a nice change from some sprawling CRPGs we've played. If I have any complaints they are that the game is pretty unchallenging (at least thus far) and that interacting with characters/objects in the environment is clunky.

Nice start. I don't remember the interaction being clunky, but it's been a while now. That might get cleaned up in Dragonfall, as I haven't played the first game. I remember feeling like the series got a bit wordy in places, especially in the Hong Kong game, where some conversations seemed to go on for hours. But that's the only negative that's stood the test of time for me.

I think the only one out of that list that I missed was the first Divinity:OS... I tried it, but bounced off pretty hard because the story seemed absolutely lame. They were more or less forcing me to join some group I wanted no dealings with, and I just shrugged and stopped playing.

I don't think I'm up for a replay on any of these. D:OS2 absolutely destroyed my party at the end. I had not a shred of a hope against the bad guys, even though I'd done reasonably well against everything else. And I didn't feel like going through all the pain of redesigning everyone and then grinding for cash to buy the scrolls and such. (although it might not have been too much of a grind by then, high level magic items sold for insane amounts of money.) I just chalked that game up as a hard loss and moved on.

The Shadowrun games were another set that really needed an excellent build. I think the second one was particularly difficult. In my first attempt on that one, I was having a hellaciously hard time. Ended up giving up, and then looking up builds on the Internet. I found one I liked (don't remember it now, but it was psi melee based and devastating.) I stuck with that build for all the later games. It kicked enough ass to get through anything. I'm sure I wouldn't have figured that one out without a guide, though. Both the Shadowrun and Divinity series are really opaque about higher level powers until you're a long way in, so planning out a good build without guidance is very difficult.

Of those games, I probably enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, Vampire, and The Witcher 3 the most, in that order.

Don't give me credit for any of these, though. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to replaying at least some, and can claim points or whatever when I can pay for them with experience reports.

I totally agree with D:OS2, but my wall was much earlier, and probably more easily repairable, if anything by just selecting story mode. I haven't given up on yet though. I think I can make it through if I have a big bowl of determination.

Wrapped up Shadowrun Returns. Quite a pleasant little RPG which certainly didn't overstay its welcome.

I think I will hold off on Dragonfall until after I finish Tyranny the next Club game.

I’m thinking of playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall in the new year. I played Shadowrun Returns a few years ago and really liked it. In that one, I played an Adept build (magic-infused martial arts guy). I’ll probably do something different this time.

I remember reading that in Dragonfall, the devs seemed to really want you to play a decker, and that there were some story options that were only available if your main character has a cyberdeck. For anyone who’s played it, is that right?

^I played a Decker in Dragonfall and it was a lot of fun. I remember Pyxistyx recommended it and a lot of us used that class. I'd recommend it if only because it is a unique class unlike others that you'll see in RPG games. I think you'll enjoy it.

They are rather weak in combat initially, but a lot of the story elements connect to the class well. You should have enough extra points to develop a weapon skill to the point of being functional. Also, drones take some time to get up to speed but are hella fun when you get them going.

I played a decker/rigger hybrid and it felt pretty good since both specializations need INT. You're basically a tech-summoner controlling your drones and ESPs.

I played a troll Street Samurai and had a good time with Dragonfall. It was a bit dicey at the beginning, but then the team really started to shred the opposition.

Math wrote:

Wrapped up Shadowrun Returns. Quite a pleasant little RPG which certainly didn't overstay its welcome.

I think I will hold off on Dragonfall until after I finish Tyranny the next Club game.

I started my run (heh) in Dragonfall. Currently I'm at the point where you need to earn 50k credits (or whatever they're called). I like the new interface.

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