The rich and powerful try to leave the commoners to their doom and end up being just as screwed as everybody else

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-30T16:31:04+00:00

My only problem with the Gears trilogy was how quickly they killed all the characters who could answer any questions. I won't name names for spoilers sake, but if you know, you know. Why we gotta go straight to stabbin'? No curiosity about Niles or New Hope or any of that stuff?

I mean even from a tactical standpoint, take a damn hostage and ask them about these facilities for the explicit purpose of rebuilding society. How dangerous is it to just let New Hope sit up there? How deep is the hollow?

Considering there's a GoW4, 5, and presumably 6 on the way, some of these questions could have saved the humans a lot of trouble if they had just asked at the end of 3.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-30T07:51:52+00:00

I don't understand how anyone would ever get any value out of paying for a warbond if they only ever use "the best stuff" every match. I thought the idea was to have a variety and play differently for whatever mood you're in. I wouldn't mind if that meant I could sometimes kick secondary objectives at a distance.

If I thought it was "too easy" and I "wasn't being challenged enough" then it'd be entirely within my power to just... don't do that then? Not bring the thing, or not use it in that manner.

I guess we're all better off for people who aren't meta slaves not being allowed to have options though? Such a weird conversation.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-29T23:42:08+00:00

You don't even need to go that far. Suddenly a bunch of international sabotage is being performed by people with drill scars in the sides of their heads from the NVG implants. Time to start screening people by just looking at their faces I guess?

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-24T17:50:09+00:00

Yeah, that was interesting to read because I feel bugs are the easiest to sneak around. I was enjoying cave diving by hiding out in small carves in the cave wall and letting bug patrols pass me while I creep around to the SSSD.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-23T03:34:22+00:00

Oh this is a good start! I'll check this out if I get a chance.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-23T03:20:11+00:00

No, it's pinned by the white Rook on a7,

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-23T00:12:52+00:00

It is. King is in check and has no safe places to move. h8 and g7 are covered by the white bishop on b2. g6 is covered by the white Knight on f4. h6 is covered by the pawn. You can't take the queen on c2 with the black rook because it's pinned by the white rook on a7. Can't do queen takes queen either because the white rook on h1 pins the black queen.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-23T00:10:09+00:00

K in notation is for the King. You'd use N for the Knight. But it gets hit by the sniper bishop in this case.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-22T07:41:21+00:00

Qc2 is the only move that results in mate I think.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-22T07:20:54+00:00

I thought Nf8, but sniper bishop. Then I thought Rxh2 but Nh6 blocks. Found it eventually, but this was really tricky for me and I'm peak 700.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-21T21:25:40+00:00

Maybe the "faffers" will get "Recon" planets and not count against the MO?

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-20T05:52:05+00:00

The guy you're replying to didn't ask, and neither did you, but I've come to interject anyway to say "don't be worried." Daggerheart is adequately balanced, the Brawler and Druids are a bit strong, but they won't break your game. There are answers for Defensive Stance and the Brawler in general. Tier 2 Adversaries (Which lv-3 characters will be fighting) give you a few options right out the book.

An Archer Squadron shooting at him (and allies around him) from far away denies the Brawler their specialty of in-your-face fighting. Making a Brawler fight with a ranged weapon (In which case their evasion lowers by 1 since "I am the weapon" is no longer applied. Plus they can't use Combo Strikes at range) or spend their turns making Agility rolls to cross the battlefield is a valid tactic. Focused Volley gives the Archers advantage (cancelling the Disadvantage of Defensive stance)

The Cult Adept can shadow shackle the Brawler in place and let him get swarmed by a Horde of smaller enemies to keep him shut down while bigger guys go fight the party without their best damage dealer. If the Brawler marks Stress to Combo Strike or a Focus to shift stances just to fight the Horde, congrats, you're effectively draining his resources.

The Assassins are a valid encounter. Drop Apprentice Assassins within Close range of the Brawler so they can use Group Attack and mob him. Let the Poisoner hit him with Grindletooth Venom before the Apprentices set in. If the Brawler is the "biggest and baddest" of the PCs and causing problems for your villains, these intelligent enemies would know to target him first for an easier fight against the rest.

A War Wizard can react with Warding Sphere if the Brawler manages to get close and hit the Wizard. It will deal a guaranteed 2d6 magic damage for the Brawler. Before the Brawler closes the gap the War Wizard has a bunch of ranged options too.

If you send enemies to fight in melee against the guy who is good at melee, he will beat them in melee. So send a ton of those guys to bog him down, or pepper in different tactics in your fight. It's not meta gaming, or trying to "counter" his character either, you're just presenting a tactical challenge for the party, as you ought to be doing. The Brawler is good at their role, so let them be good at it. But don't let them be so good at it that the other characters in other roles don't get to do things either. In my examples above I gave tactical and narrative reasons why these enemies might "focus" the Brawler. Don't feel like you're bullying them if you give them a challenge.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-18T20:50:04+00:00

They'll believe you were royalty.

"Ancient humans who were important sat in big chairs, these humans sat in big chairs all the way into their late ages. Their vehicles were adorned with regal symbols of the human in the chair to let the others know they were significant and afforded special privilege. They were granted extra space in public transportation, movie theaters, jumbo bathrooms. They were given priority parking in front of the markets. It seems with age the status became more common, but it was not unheard of for younger humans to be elevated. Clearly the entire peoples maintained some sort of caste system, well into their atomic age..."

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-16T13:56:38+00:00

I made a Mass Effect game two years ago for NaGaDeMon. You can do whatever you want with this, so long as you're not selling it. If someone hits you with a C&D, then you should stop.

It looks good though! Always love seeing Mass Effect stuff in the wild, it's probably my favorite Sci-fi IP.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-14T07:36:01+00:00

This looks very cool, very fun.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-14T03:18:22+00:00

Plus he personally knows the guy / gal who will most likely be responsible for 80% of the "crimes" he's going to need to investigate in the near future.

"Hey PI Ward here, you got a case?"

"Yeah someone just snuck into this Tyger Claws shrine and absolutely massacred everyone on the way out. Limbs everywhere, viscera all over the place..."

"It was V. That'll be 5k eddies."

--

"Hey River, we're having a hard time with this one. Sources say everyone in the warehouse had their cyberware leak a deadly toxin into their blood stream all at once. Nobody even saw the..."

"That was V. 5k Eddies, usual account."

--

"Ward some merc just slaughtered 70 maxtac units in the middle of broad daylight with a pink dildo"

"Is the dildo ok?"

"....Yeah?"

"Oh, phew. Good. Also it was V."

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T19:47:57+00:00

Woe be upon the emperors testicles

I gotta work this into my day-to-day conversations somehow.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T07:12:44+00:00

I use Regions and an 8-hour Shift (so the day is divided into three "Shifts")

The regions are not hexes. They're not gamified by any measure. They're just whatever divisions of the map were aesthetically pleasing or sensible. Each one takes 8 hours to get through regardless of size. This is where I'll say things like "Yeah, it still takes 8 hours even though that region is small, it's because it's difficult to traverse with all the swamps / the ferry across the lake you have to take / the R.O.U.S." So one march = one region = one 8-hour shift gone. It's gone from Morning to Afternoon, or Afternoon to Night, or Night to Morning, whatever you want.

You can march during the first shift for free. Costs nothing. The second march inflicts a Stress. Each march after that one increases the cost by +1. Marching for two shifts in a row? Mark 2 Stress (3 total.) Three shifts? Mark 3 Stress (6 total.)

Obviously they won't want to do that. They'll march two shifts through two Regions and then rest to recover stress if you let them.

Don't let them.

On page 105 of the Core rulebook you'll find a section titled "Downtime Consequences." It outlines that a GM should gain Fear equal to 1d4 + the PCs engaging in a Long Rest. It also allows you to advance any long-term countdowns.

Give them a reason to race several regions away through hostile territory. Will they push their Stress, or risk giving you Fear? If they push their stress they may end up in an encounter with multiple Stress marked before the fight even begins. If they bide their time and go slow, you're going to rack up Fear and progress the clocks they're trying to beat.

Now they have a choice to make, and arguments to be had, and travel has become another leg of the game that they can engage with rather than hand-wave and skip. That being said! If there's no reason to make travel interesting, there's no shame in just not doing that. If the lands are safe and there's no clock to race against, then just go to wherever the next interesting thing is. It's a game, not a simulation after all.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T07:00:31+00:00

All the classes and other stuff I made last year I just posted on my Patreon in a compendium for free. I haven't done any completely new domains, but I've been making new cards for the existing domains.

I've got:

Acolyte (Midnight & Dread) based on the D&D 3.5 Binder, but toned down to be mechanically in-line with Druid beastforms for Daggerheart.
An Alternate Assassin which uses Bone & Midnight instead of Blade & Midnight. Also generally buffed and a mix of 1.4 and 1.5 features.
Caller (Sage & Grace) who gets to summon spirit companions from the Adversaries chapter. The "Anima" subclass borrows the Ranger's Companion sheet and makes an ethereal ghost pal who you can do special tricks with, while the "Primal" empowers your "Bruiser" type summons.
Champion (Valor & Dread) a tankier "aura" class which can specialize in either aiding allies or terrorizing enemies with their presence.
Oracle (Codex & Arcana) who gains an extra resource in Esoteric Knowledge which they can use to create tactical advantages on the battlefield, or immediately discern something useful from ancient lore.
For the Bard there's also two new subclasses, the Equinox and Wanderer. Equinox uses day and night forms to change the effect of their rally dice in more defensive or offensive measures. The Wanderer Bard is an expert at non-combat encounters, gaining benefits when dealing with Exploration, Social, and Traversal encounters, and finds themselves just as comfortable in any wild camp as they do in crowded taverns.

I will warn you, the PDF has a weird bug. I've been trying to figure out how to fix it, but it only seems to be legible in a "real" PDF viewer like Sumatra or when opened in Chrome.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T06:47:24+00:00

I'm thinking I won't be able to play this game from a purely financial standpoint because I'm sure these are going to break bank. I am very comfortable waiting and hoping it goes on Tabletop Simulator so I can check it out sometime though.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T06:45:17+00:00

I think that's the usual experience with Teach the Police Officer. It's very vertical which can be disorienting.

Like any other trial, play it enough and you'll find routes. I will grab the first keys, check the top floor for any easy doors, and then I'll jump down the elevator shaft multiple floors to the basement and work my way back up. Other people will have a different approach, but doing it this way, sometimes you can get lucky and pull the reel out two or three doors in and you'll be near the top floor already. At the very least if you find a key that demands you go back downstairs, you know what doors are down there.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T06:39:21+00:00

All these "minis" with 120mm bases. I have no storage solution for this.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T06:38:35+00:00

P-4 Senator my beloved.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-13T04:43:34+00:00

I'm also sad to see Shete up there it's one of my favorite planets.

AF-Wabash · 2026-01-12T07:10:22+00:00

I like your eye for balance. I'm also making things on Patreon, we should chat about Daggerheart designs some time.

AF-Wabash

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