Fria Ligans forum

Hello everyone!

I'm GM a new campaign, and it seems to me that because the system is so rules light, that PCs will run out of development options pretty fast (or worse, become all alike).

In your experience, at what XP level does the game breakdown?

That would help me calibrate the amount I give out per session...

Thank you all!

The questionnaire for Coriolis is much more subject to interpretation compared to the one in Forbidden Lands. Everyone can find a way to act or insist to act according to their icon, discover something about other PCs and etc. In my campaign (or connected published adventures) I notice influx of XP and each gets from 2-3 average per session. Since the number crunching in Coriolis is less than Forbidden Lands (where we have ranks per talents and more XP needs), having more than that can quickly deplete the options, especially with the flat rate of 5xp for everything.

Maxed out PC - depends on the definition... for me getting all talents that require cybernetics and few combat ones is already maxed out on 30-40xp... The game is more flat on the progress than others. Also depends on the amount of skills you want to max.

My observation is in the Coriolis games people are more for the story and exploring the setting and even XP-driven player said "I don't care for the XP much in this game."

Hi, I house ruled the XP for my game; I give 1XP per player and adventure (e.g. Ghazali being one, Aram's ravine one etc). 1 XP buys one talent or one skill advance, new skills cost 2 XP.

This way I don't think the PCs will max out or be able to be skilled in too many fields. However, iike Valyar, one or two of my players don't use their XP, seemingly content with their character's skills as is.

the cap of xp where the system stops working and all PC's are experts in everything?

Haven't found it yet.

Highest xp total so far in my games is around 60 xp, or 12 advancements, and the game still works.

At this stage I have noticed that the PC's that specialize have maxed out their thing - the soldier has 5 in ranged combat and all the talents they need to dakka as much as they want, the courtesan can charm and lie to their hearts contetn and so on, and they hav started branching out a bit. At the same time the more balanced jack of all trades have gottten good in several of their diciplines, like the mystic assassin who also is a face for the group? they are decent or good at all of their niches at this stage.

Some PC's have mentioned that they don't know what to spend xp on at this point, but not for lack of options - but rather it seems like getting that first skill rank in medicurgy is not as exciting as when they got their fifth in melee ...

Also, my players buy LOTS of talents, which means that their dice pools don't change that drastically, apart from that one niche .
( "a courtesan with seductive AND beautiful AND faction standing, you say? yeah ok ... maybe you want to get some skills soon? No? ok, you do you.")

For the other game where the group are in the 40xp area they mostly 'complain' that there is too much cool stuff to buy for their xp, so not really a problem

My group is currently at ~80 XP and still room for growth. We also find that having 10-13 pool of dice means nothing... Failures happen very very often.

We've been playing for 1,5 years and they've probably received 100 exp so far and some have 4-5 in a skill (10 dice pool), but no huge difference in overpoweredness. I think it's partly that Free League's fighting mechanic and rolling in general is so prone to failure and the fact that you're always tempted to gamble (pray to the gods etc.) so the GM gets more points to create accidents.

I agree with Valyar that XP is not super important, money and fame is probably more important so I guard that as a miserly accountant. My gang always complain about being too poor, lol. So I think upgrading your ship with stuff that costs 100 000 or whatever is a late game that is infinite. I was more worried in Mutant: Year Zero honestly than in this game (since that game hinges on survival and that everything is painful etc.), I wouldn't worry, until you've played for 4+ years.

I think the setting itself also helps with creating obstacles always too big for the group, say, a whole fleet of ships or meeting the precursors or whatever. You can very easily create infinite struggle with the setting, if being powerful is important. My group and my playstyle is more focused on exploration, drama and storytelling.

I also felt that my players had more or less explored most of the progression system after 2,5 years of play. I think its mostly because Coriolis is based on Mutant: Year Zero, which has a much higher death-rate of characters.

Especially the Talents in the core book become a bit thin after a while. To remedy that I put together a compendium of 50 new Talents. Its available on DrivethruRPG if you are interested!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/31 ... =veterans

I also felt that my players had more or less explored most of the progression system after 2,5 years of play. I think its mostly because Coriolis is based on Mutant: Year Zero, which has a much higher death-rate of characters.

Especially the Talents in the core book become a bit thin after a while. To remedy that I put together a compendium of 50 new Talents. Its available on DrivethruRPG if you are interested!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/31 ... =veterans

We have less than year of play, but with 85xp now they definitely want more options and I introduced your booklet to spice up the things.
Thank you for this work, definitely adds more ways to spend XP for games where the death ratio is not that high, or missing

We have less than year of play, but with 85xp now they definitely want more options and I introduced your booklet to spice up the things.
Thank you for this work, definitely adds more ways to spend XP for games where the death ratio is not that high, or missing

Terrific that you found it useful! If you or your players have feedback about specific talents or the compendium as a whole, I would love to hear it!

Thanks for the replies!

What I gather is that between the 80-100 point mark is where advancement starts to become a « problem » for players. The moment where you start to buy skills and talents that don’t really fit your character's concept, because you’ve nothing else to buy...

I always got the feeling that the game would benefit from higher xp costs as you get better. And maybe 10 xp per talent. (For example, pay 5 plus the level of skill you are aiming for, so a level 5 skill will cost 10 to attain from level 4)