Hello,
I am reading through the quickstart and would like to offer some thoughts, corrections, suggestions and questions. Apologies beforehand if I have misunderstood or missed something obvious.
I’d like to note that while some of these notes may, or may not, be able to be deduced, my experience with Runequest, for example, where designers had the attitude that players need to figure out unclear things for themselves, have a distinct disadvantage (showed by the endless rules questions in the forums). That disadvantage is that the GM may think that they have missed something, and spends a lot of time trying to find something that isn’t there.
While I promote better phrasing at times, I apologise for my own grammar.
Also note I have never played any Free League games, so I am coming from a perspective of not knowing the rules of the previous Coriolis or Alien etc. in that I can’t draw conclusions from previous experience of what something means at times.
That being said, it is certainly an enjoyable read and I am looking forward to the full game.
Here we go:
Keepsake p.16
The last sentence is confusing the way it is phrased, and needs to be rephrased. You can’t push a 1, do you mean to say you can push one of the 1s with a keepsake? If so, why involve a hope in the explanation? Or does it mean you can use the keepsake once instead of using a hope?
How much to pack p.16
Refers to wrong page
Difficulty
Will tests sometimes require two successes for a success? I take issue with that each test, despite difficulty, is successful at least 1 out of 6. It makes characters feel less specialised.
General note
Can you choose not to take an action and wait to take a potential reaction instead like blocking or dodging (where is this stated?), or have your action be triggered by an event, like when the creatures come around the corner I run forward and attack. This latter/part works well in 5e.
Zone Features p.25
Cluttered - perhaps it is better to have to roll agility if you move quickly in this type of area instead of just entering into the zone (like half speed or higher)? It would make more sense.
Dimly lit - what do you mean by “equally difficult” and “can’t pass through the zone”? Does it mean they are at -2 or impossible? Unclear.
Retreat p.25
You cannot block it. But you can dodge it? How does that work? Do you fall down on the spot? Can you move 2m extra on a success? Or perhaps, slightly more logically, if you opt to dodge your move is cancelled and on a success you can move only 2m? Unclear.
Full auto p.28
Maybe I am nitpicking, but the text is slightly unclear if all three attacks are needed for a reload to be necessary. Could you attack twice and not having to reload?
Reload p28
So does it take an action to reload if you do it after full auto?
Armor p29
Can armor be broken in combat? It would make sense if its effectiveness could be reduced by crits.
Using the bird’s abilities p.49
Is the companion assigned a person always a companion or can the companion be changed immediately next turn if the companion dies?
Crit table p31
Gouged eye - there is no time limit
Impaled heart - would prefer “impaled heart or head” destroyed or similar as the text, to have a choice as a GM on 66 it would be useful for beginner GMs
I would also prefer you had a result where you could die every round (and one on a stretch) to increase tension and hard choices in a fight situation
With broken back and neck, it states that a logic roll must be made in time and has a recovery time only. Is the recovery time - after successful use of the logic roll - and otherwise it is permanent? The text about crits doesn’t clarify these things well nor does the crit text make it clear.
Death p 30
Here you mention a death save could be forced each round, but the table has no such result. Too bad. Missed opportunity as stated before.
Broken and Critical Injuries p.30
The text on stabilizing critical injuries previously states that the logic roll takes the same amount of time as the time limit (great, means you have one roll only) but here the text states it takes two separate rolls to get one on their feet and another to stabilize a lethal injury. I guess it is explained in a clear enough way, as long as we understand it is not possible to do the two rolls with one action of the time limit, right? Or does one action do both rolls?
Crit effects p.31
Is a broken arm healed automatically or does it need a logic roll to heal in the amount of time stated? I assume it is the latter because that would make sense, but what happens on a failed logic roll and how long does it take to fix a broken arm with a logic roll? It may seem like I am nitpicking, but I think the less a GM need to improvise the better, because they might be looking in rules for something that doesn’t exist (and would need improv or common sense instead) the better. Maybe I have missed something.
A helping hand p.33
An action is a very short amount of time. It would be nice if this could only be attempted once per shift. Can they try this action once per round otherwise? Does it actually just take a round?
Mental injury table
Alcoholic seems illogical or possibly unclearly phrased, or both. Taking damage from not drinking is strange, as well as becoming dazed. It would make more sense if they lost hope by not drinking and judgment by drinking, so to speak, where drinking is the least worst option, normally…
Can mental injuries be healed? I guess the full game deals with this. Either way, I hope some conditions are not easily cured at all, or take a long time of therapy, as they benefit roleplaying.
Explosions and falling p.36
I’m surprised the explosions or falling don’t cause any critical injuries, as stated, because explosions especially are known to do that. Though perhaps the grenades themselves will have this listed. Either way, maybe a crit threshold should have been included anyway (saying unless a weapon has one). Still, a note of this seems to belong here. Perhaps falling should have a higher crit threshold than explosions but certainly you can die outright from a high enough fall… as the rules are now, you can’t die at all, only be broken... I’d even argue that area of effect attacks like explosions (or falling) could cause several critical injuries at once. Does armor protect from a fall?
Getting help p.37
Similar as with despair. How many times can this be tried? And is an action here similarly just one round…??
P.36 and p.37 Broken by blight and blight manifestations
On 36 it sounds like you may suffer a blight manifestation and on 37 you do suffer one.
…new blight leads to damage instead. Damage equal to the blight level or two damage? If it is stated somewhere else, please refer to that page. Things like that make for much easier reading and less confusion.
…when already broken (by damage?) - could be clearer
Blight table
I wouldn’t mind two or three more effects . In campaigns, especially if you do more than one, variation is king to keep players and GMs interested. Of course, you could change the blight effects in later campaigns as the nature of it changes, perhaps, but… again, in Call of Cthulhu their shock table is the most common complaint from players. They feel the results are boring as they come up so often, being so few of them (except if you roll phobia, I guess).
Delving
Depth seems to be counted also sideways not just depth, or the map handout as well as the delve table won’t make sense. The delve table in the adventure has two results on 20 though. It seems delving one marker can go both diagonally and sideways, not just in terms of depth. Otherwise the delve event table doesn’t match with the map. The map is about 12 deep so d6+12 is only 18, if you count the top layers of the map, which I think you don’t. However, it would be more accurate if a delve would be described in length traversed for that reason, not in depth, or that an explanation would be there.
Or is it depth only (not markers travelled) and because if the same result comes up, we go down the event table anyway? If that is the case, it might be, it looks a bit strange with a 20+ result as you can’t reach 21 anyway. So logically depth is not always referring to depth. Am I wrong? Unclear.
General question of blight effects:
As a GM is the blight attack meant to be described to players as both physical or just mental? Do you see the delver whole suit being covered by frost or is it more a matter that he came near the frost and it mostly affectsbthe mind or even space and matter itself metaphysically only? Is the bird physically removing blight or is it a mental thing going on?