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smacau

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A member registered Jan 26, 2020

Recent community posts

Great adventure, full of weirdness. The map is fantastic, and works really well in Foundry VTT with "fog of war" enabled.

I've not run this (yet), but it feels like with Troika! and S&C, I'm ready to go after a first reading. The value of this feeling to an older gamer like me is huge.

I'm going to set this adventure "off the map" from Acid Death Fantasy, deep in the desert to the west. The "blackened" region is still off-map, but could be a world-ending threat for playing more in ADF's world.

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Q) Any plan to expand on the "Thousand Sultanates Generator" content?

From first reading, the map, intro, backgrounds, and enemies are solid, but to me the generator seems like only the beginning?

"Stuff to Do" is full of interesting ideas, but I feel some more tables for Shurupak and creating city-states from scratch would be cool.

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Yep indeed it is, but if I'm not mistaken I believe you said the web version is latest, so I'm hoping the web version can be my canonical reference :)

In a similar vein, the ritual word tables are missing from the html version, I think (again they are in the PDF version)?

Happy NY, thanks for creating such interesting adventures - I have a ton to read through now from the winter sale.

https://dungeon.loottheroom.uk/character-creation#roll-an-extra

Is just bullet points, with no text to say "roll 2d6"? I downloaded the PDF version to cross-check.

Cheers!

Thanks mate, appreciated

Q) Ben, do you have any plans to aggregate the Ultan's Door content into single tome?

Asking before I choose to buy the individual zine PDFs, cheers

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Some minor feedback for v1.1.0:

  1. The GM screen lists Plate mail as 3g, instead of 6g
  2. p.11 Encounters has 10 second rounds, while p.13 Combat has 1 minute rounds

Cheers!

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Haha that's interesting!

But then, wouldn't the same logic apply to enemy morale?

"If the roll is higher than 10+HD, they flee or surrender at the first opportunity."

For me I would house rule hireling morale, because I feel that the whole thing about morale is having the grit to stand and fight when every instinct is to flee.

Instead I would roleplay those kind of "survivability smarts" externally to the rules, where a veteran hireling passes the morale check but elects to flee based on rational mind.

They'd do some fighting withdrawal and regroup, rather than panic fleeing

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On p.29 the text says to "roll under your Cunning but over the Hireling’s HD on a d20 ". Doesn't that mean the more experienced the Hireling, the more likely they flee?

I feel like it would be better to ADD the Hireling HD to your Cunning, up to, say, 18 maximum.

Here's my after-action report from one session of The Lichway:

https://starmonkey.wordpress.com/2023/07/02/after-action-report-the-lichway-usin...

Cheers!

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Hey! I used this for my game today of TVG - thanks so much: https://starmonkey.wordpress.com/2023/07/02/after-action-report-the-lichway-usin...

What a great idea! I just re-watched True Detective S1, then found this by accident. Cheers

Just wanted to say I love how you do the secret doors on the map - automatically VTT friendly with fog-of-war. Cheers!

"and The Vanilla Game" -- nice!

Ah nice. That will scale even better on my Supernote! :)

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I noticed this:

On wilderness time units:

"While exploring the wilderness the GM uses 6 hours long units of time called quarters of the day."

On spell casting:

"you must rest uninterrupted for 8 hours to regain that ability."

What about making spell casting recovery require a quarter of time (6h), that way it aligns?

Also, I see that "resting" is described in adventure site exploration, risking the Exhausted condition. But, there is no mention of sleeping once per day vs Exhausted condition? Are consuming rations required as well to avoid being Exhausted?

Ah, that's a shame re: ASE being a boring dungeon, have heard a similar story before.

I read the Denethix Campaign Setting chapters, and loved the maps, history, factions, random tables, and orbital gods.

Very interested in how you go with ASE (something I've always wanted to run). Would you consider blogging your experiences as you go?

Thanks for sharing this!

I skimmed through in ~10 minutes and immediately had a feel for how this would play at the table. I like the class-less, level-less PCs with the talents system. Would consider this for running old-school modules.

Nice use of font, so my old-man eyes can read it easily from my phone/tablet.

Roll20 sheet is a nice touch, but I'll probably use Foundry VTT (with the Simple Worldbuilding System for a basic character sheet).

Suggestion: Add bookmarks to the PDF.

Published a "first impressions" blog post, from reading TVG and The Isle and planning how to run a "one shot" of it:

https://starmonkey.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/the-vanilla-game-the-isle-first-impr...

Thanks Jared, much appreciated. Do you have an ETA on an updated epub file?

Btw, I'm enjoying using that format to read on both my phone and desktop. Never used that format before for an RPG, so it's novel to me!

F1R15 exits don't match also?

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Q) Floor 1, Room 12 - the map has exits S,E but the text lists S,W?

Ah nice one, I didn't even check the epub. Cheers!

Bought this off the strength of The Vanilla Game's writing, and your article about making The Isle.

Suggestion - can bookmark the PDF? Very handy while playing on VTT to be able to skip around at will. 

Cheers!

Really nice contribution, nice clean layout. Would go well with some restrained b&w line art, or stipple point (like what I see in some Mothership 1e artwork).

Q) With XP & Carousing, does that mean I can earn XP "twice" on the same credits? i.e. get XP from selling some treasure for credits, then spending those on Carousing, for more XP?

Talents are a nice idea, I would probably be lazy and link it to level progression (reminds me of WH Dark Heresy leveling).

I like the 2d6 generator for Planets - looking forward to more generators for both larger scale (systems) and smaller scale (cities).

Would love to expand the Faction section - more generators like the Planet section?

I really like the Faction Goal Progression part, seems simple but still useful, especially the note around player interference in that goal progression - that would be a great trigger for designing adventures, reviewing goal progression/regression.

As a fan of ItO - thank you for sharing, I enjoyed reading this. I'll keep an eye on this game.

Sounds interesting! More post-apoc gaming goodness alongside the likes of MYZ, Vaarn, Other Dust, etc

Try the "gygax75-screen.pdf" version instead of the booklet version, which is laid out for printing.

Q) Are there any actual plays out there?

Q) What's the difference between "Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City - v1.91ii - Digital Edition.pdf" from Itch and "Ultraviolet_Grasslands_Book_v2.0.pdf" from Exalted?

I own both, the digital edition PDF is bookmarked and is a fraction of the size.

Does the 2.0 version contain any text changes / errata from 1.91ii?

Cheers

Thanks for sharing - giving it a read now.

Was thinking of using the "Into the Odd" Roll20 charsheet to play a one-shot (Hole in the Oak, or similar).

Cheers!

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p. 5: "If the DARK DIE rolls highest AND it is higher than the Agent's current Stress value,
Stress is raised by one."

Edit: As an aside, I'm assuming highest !== "equal highest" (same as Cthulhu Dark)?

p. 7's example; "If they had rolled a 4 or higher, both Stress and Insight would have increased." - If Stress=4, then rolling a 4 shouldn't increase Stress? Should the example say, "If they had rolled 5 or higher"?

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A solid start! I like the subclasses.

What's on the roadmap? Hexcrawl map? Faction rules for city states? Mechanical rules for spellcasting defilement? Survival/travel rules/procedures?

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Possible to get a digital version that isn't spreads, but single page view (like the cover)?

Want to have single-page on one half of the screen, and my editor on the other.

Cheers!

New layout is excellent btw

Using the spreads PDF on my desktop monitor is very nice - my compliments.

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Q) Thoughts on using a harsher die-results format, and removing the failure die mechanic?

1-3 = failure
4-5 = success with complication
6 = success
More than one six = critical success

Would trigger more re-rolls, I'd imagine

Q) What in-game effects do Injuries and Debilities apply? Justify a Failure Die?

Right - I get it now! I think my awareness of the previous rules meant I was laboring under a mis-understanding.

"Anchors may be marked to falashback and activate an At Home scene at any time."

(Spotted a typo above, btw!)

I should have read fintcher's thread below more closely - apologies for my obtuseness.

From your playtesting, how did the flashbacks go in terms of potentially disrupting the flow of the horror? Like, you're at some climax to the story, and a PC who has a high stress marks an anchor and triggers a flashback to wandering fields of flowers with his girlfriend? Jarring or not?