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pelorus
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My PlayThru and Thoughts

Mon 16 Sep 2024, 11:09

We decided to play this on Friday night. I had the QuickStart from before but spent a couple of hours on Friday reading it.

There wasn't a simple intro available so I wrote something:

For Generations, you've been living aboard the Ship City. Tens of thousands of souls packed into this immense behemoth.

Light is provided by the mighty gas-giant Moubarra, largest satellite of the vast star Jumuah.

You belong to the Explorers Guild. One of several (including Navigators, Machinists, Gardeners, ...and the Coriolites). Technically there's also the Pilots, the Wreckers, the Mining Combine and the Prophets. Some might include the Black Toad, the criminal underbelly of the Ship City, as a guild.
Explorers are the newest of the Great Guilds, founded two generations ago by Master Moska to handle the excavations of the Ruins.

Ruins? Yes, the Jumuah system was part of another Civilisation, an advanced culture whose technology can barely be fathomed. We call them the Builders for want of a better name.

So, what of the Blight? We think it's a result of the advanced Builder tech, maybe even something they invented which turned on them and killed them.

And the Birds (Garuda). No idea. They're not living but they respond as if alive. They're a construct of some sort that appears to us like a birdlike emanation. But the reason we have them is that they oppose Blight, and they oppose it well.

And now, you're heading to Moubarra 4. A small moon with great ravines upon its surface. There's been an accident.
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https://www.patreon.com/Lategaming
See my YZE Games and Supplements on my blog: lategaming.com
 
User avatar
pelorus
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Posts: 111
Joined: Wed 21 Dec 2016, 10:32
Location: Malta
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Re: My PlayThru and Thoughts

Mon 16 Sep 2024, 11:26

I watched UNDERWATER (2020) again as a little bit of prep for this as the suits and supply seemed appropriate.

Things we noticed with the Playthru though

1. Supply rules take a little extra explanation though I don't mind the abstraction.
2. We're playing through with only two PCs (Delver and Scout) - this could get challenging not least because Supply is running out.
3. The Delve Rolls and Blight Protection rolls get a little mechanical/tiresome. That needs work.
4. So much weight is given to base ability and relatively little to Talent and Equipment.

We definitely didn't feel the pressure to get down there quickly with all of the base events - the boss, the supper, the sabotage. The supper felt weird in that case when there are literally people dying. Once we got on the way it cleared up. Would have been nice to have some narrative about the journey to Moubarra 4, what a Grasshopper is etc.

The delve we shortened with a specific changes to the Delve Rules. A delve moves 1 marker/square per success up to the limit of the Rope. If no Rope, it's only 1 marker no matter how many successes you get. Alternatively if you want to descend without a rope, every Delve is counted as Pushed. There are consequences.

We also changed the Blight rules because constantly rolling Blight Defence was getting tiresome. We made it more like a buffer. Suits can absorb X points of Blight and the roll is to successfully Flush the Blight. We also considered making this just a static thing rather than a dice roll - but limiting the number of flushes possible. We think that might be more tense.

They successfully arrived at the chamber last week. This week, they go in.....
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https://www.patreon.com/Lategaming
See my YZE Games and Supplements on my blog: lategaming.com

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