Dregntael
Topic Author
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 30 Jan 2022, 14:25

Reflections on Coriolis after a few sessions, and a call for advice

Sun 30 Jan 2022, 14:29

Hi everyone! I am the current GM in a game of Coriolis. We are quite new to the game; before this we played Tales from the Loop for about a year and really liked it. So far we have played through the adventure in the core book (The Statuette of Zhar & Terenganu Valley) and The Dying Ship, which ended in an epic space fight where the party had to board the mercenaries ship in order to stop the Djinn from escaping to Kua on it. It was pretty awesome.

And yet, I am hesitating whether I actually want to continue the campaign. The problem I have is not with the setting which is great and very evocative, I could see myself running several long-term campaigns in it. Rather after coming from TftL, many of the mechanics of Coriolis left a sour taste. Below are some of the pain points we encountered:

- The choice of skills does not match well with how we played the game: several skills were basically never used (Survival, Dexterity, Science), while others were used all the time. In particular, Manipulation was the all-mighty god skill that was used to resolve >50% of high-stakes situations.
- Several of the "advanced" skills don't feel like they should be limited to trained characters only, in particular for Culture and Medicurgy I got the reaction "wait what why wouldn't my character be able to know/do this?" several times.
- The equipment lists are just way too long and badly organized, which actually stops us from improvising and having fun. It's just no fun to have to look up each time whether a particular item is something that would just make sense for a character in this world to have, or something important/expensive they should've thought of buying.
- The combat system is brutal (which I don't mind) but also felt quite boring (which I do mind) since there are often not many choice points beyond which enemy to target. Instead there's a lot of fiddly modifiers to attack rolls and damage that take time to calculate but don't really make it any more interesting. I either want a combat system with some actual tactical choice (e.g. D&D 4E) or a more abstract system where the whole combat is over in one or two rolls (e.g. TftL). (This is not a complaint about the spaceship combat, which we only did once but I actually quite liked since it has some interesting tactical choice.)
- The questions to gain XP all felt weird and/or vague to us, which lead to answers like "Uhm, I guess you can get an XP for this?" or "I don't think like I deserve an XP for this, but I'm not sure". Especially the last question ("Did you act in accordance with your Icon?") we never knew because nowhere it is spelled out what each Icon actually stands for or what kinds of actions they would approve of.
- Darkness Points felt like a great mechanic at first, however they tend to cause a negative downwards spiral: when the PCs are in a desperate situation they would pray on every failed roll out of necessity, which in turn flooded me with DP to spend, which ended up making the situation even more desperate. This goes counter to my usual style of DMing where I add more complications when things are going easy, but tend to go a little easier on the party when they are already having a hard time.

In the end, most of these complaints boil down to me hoping that Coriolis would be like Tales from the Loop but in space with cool spaceships and perhaps a bit more crunchy combat, and it not really being that game. Despite that I really did enjoy playing it and would like to continue to do so. So here are a few questions for you:

1. Do you recognize any of the problems I listed above in your own games?
2. Are we doing something importantly wrong in how we play the game, or did we miss any important rules?
3. Do you have any suggestions on parts of the rules we could change/replace/ignore to increase out enjoyment without that breaking the essence of the game?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts!
 
LastPuppetTheatre
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon 31 Jan 2022, 00:44

Re: Reflections on Coriolis after a few sessions, and a call for advice

Mon 31 Jan 2022, 01:01

Hi there,

I'm a relatively new Coriolis GM (I also love Tales from the Loop!) but I have a few thoughts that may be helpful.

Choice of skills: This can certainly happen depending on scenario choices. However, I'm surprised at the ones you've named: Survival wasn't useful in the Valley? In my game Survival almost came up too much (they started on Jina. Lots of acid storms and rock-climbing plateaus to deal with.) I would just say that Coriolis is a "big" game designed for lots of style of gameplay, exemplified in the types of group they name early in the Core (scientists, mercenaries, etc.). Personally I do let players use skills somewhat creatively, so they tend to "use what they got" to some extent. I find Observation, Survival, Tech, Data Djinn, and Culture all come up a lot. Manipulation is useful, but -- do you use the rule as-written where the target can react with aggression rather than compliance? Certainly limits the "universal solution" quality of that skill.

Advanced skills: I see what you mean, and one of my players actually took a rank of Medicurgy at creation precisely because he wanted to avoid the party lacking that. You could always house-rule that they can use Survival or something to do crude helping, and Medicurgy is reserved for more serious medical interventions. Or someone could just take a rank of Medicurgy. ;) Maybe remind players that those Advanced skills are only ever 5 XP away IIRC.

Equipment lists: I hear you. One of my players has the PDF of the rulebook and he usually finds stuff faster than me with my hard copy. I'd recommend maybe printing those lists out or something so you have them handy. Equipment comes up constantly in my campaign and I also struggle with bookkeeping. Obviously Tales has nothing like this.

Combat: So rules-as-written may not have tons of tactics IMHO. But the classic GM advice applies: preferably combats should rarely-if-ever be two sides blasting at each with rifles. My combats so far have been frantic nightmares. One involved the group holed up in a cave, setting booby traps as enemies came through a narrow chokepoint, with missed attacks hitting a 'reactive' walls and sending showers of sparks over everyone. Another involved an android that grabbed a player and started choking the life out of her while the other players desperately tried to break the hold while raining bullets over it. I'd prefer more baked-in tactics, like yourself, but creativity trumps complex tactics rules-wise.

XP rules: Interesting point. Yeah, I grew up a lot with World of Darkness where these slightly open-ended questions were common. I encourage players to think creatively, and keep the XP list handy as they play sessions. They're really good at finding ways to incorporate their Icons into gameplay RP-wise now. They tend to go for a 'big moment' protecting someone to get the 'protect buddy' one. The 'did you learn something?' I use as a way to get them to tell me what they found more interesting that they learned.

Darkness Points: remember that nothing compels you to spend these. They are discretionary resources for using when the tension needs to be ramped up. I use them when players are having too easy of a time, or when the atmosphere needs a bump (e.g., exploring scary ship -- I might want a scary 'extra encounter' to frighten players). In the published stuff reference is made to 'optional events' for just this reason. It's okay to horde them and have them unspent at the end of a mission. You can also use them to do creative stuff beyond 'your clip is empty' (which is more directly punishing). E.g. I might have a rival bounty hunter show up to make things complicated. Or their friendly NPC guide is suddenly not behind them any more. Definitely avoiding laying down punishments (like "NPC dodges your attack") if they are already struggling.

Summary
In short, I wouldn't say you're necessarily doing anything wrong (you know your group!), but this is just some stuff I've found helpful in my game. I'm also running Tales right now and I love them both in their own way. It's very abstract and that's nice too. Vaesen is a nice middle-ground if you want a bit more rules without getting quite as intricate as Coriolis.

Best luck -- have fun!
 
psullie
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun 12 Dec 2021, 22:42

Re: Reflections on Coriolis after a few sessions, and a call for advice

Mon 31 Jan 2022, 19:28

Regarding Skills and DP

Remember that failing a test should have consequences (P55). Therefore only call for a test where a fail could drive the narrative. For basic or simple tasks, if the PC has enough Points in the relevant skill make it an automatic success - no roll = re-roll & no-DP.

I also struggled a bit, in that I liked to 'conduct' the beat of the game. However I found that DP are a great way to give a little agency to the Players, sure I still decide when to spend them, but how much is ultimately up to the PC's (besides going into combat with a bucket of DP is heaps of fun & I get re-rolls too!)
 
Uroboren
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun 21 Mar 2021, 22:07

Re: Reflections on Coriolis after a few sessions, and a call for advice

Mon 14 Feb 2022, 11:05

Regarding XP
If the five in the book doesn’t suit you and the players, exchange them to have your session evolve.
Set them up together with the players. Discuss what would make the characters more interesting.

Instead of the Icon one - make it if you’ve acted according to status, concept or whatnot

Finishing a mission

Excellent planning or setting up goals, filling that goal

Reveal something about their past

Good role playing - using weakness, using in character greetings or other expressions

Summing up last session in a good way

Using a skill in a creative way

Or something else you think each player might need to learn, express, try, to enhance the connection to the third horizon.

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