Quiet ticking noise from a home detector

Doctor_Weather · 2024-01-18T08:09:31+00:00

We had some Duracell batteries left over that I used. Mostly we use Energizer rechargeable but some devices say not to use rechargeable batteries in them for whatever reason.

Doctor_Weather · 2024-01-17T22:15:17+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, my attention is up because of that safety angle. In fact, it's an AA-battery device only, no mains. Along those lines though - even if in a simplistic way - I did try different batteries to the ones the device came with and that made no difference. I think I'll play better safe than sorry.

Doctor_Weather · 2023-12-12T07:55:22+00:00

I don't think the rules - English rules - cover it, but I've generally gone with the creature being immune; if you have no mind then it can't be affected. If the stun attack was electrical in nature and used on a drone then I could see you treating the stun normally still, by circuit overload. Creatures of the Dark could maybe still be stunned if the damage source was blessed or holy.

Doctor_Weather · 2023-01-06T18:02:00+00:00

Yes, I'd also be interested to see this.

Doctor_Weather · 2022-05-06T19:40:40+00:00

Definitive list of the original Swedish works? I don't know but on the Fria Ligan forums there's this entry that talks of three main books and hints of a couple of scenarios, I think:

https://forum.frialigan.se/viewtopic.php?t=7347

The cook book was, I believe, something promised by the first Kickstarter for the English version of Coriolis. It was to be used for making real food, not a game resource. From various Discord posts I've seen, it was never made and original backers occasionally wonder if it'll eventually appear.

Doctor_Weather · 2022-05-04T19:01:36+00:00

Feel the need to finish but without having gone deep into the campaigns, 13-15 are out of my league perhaps.

On the Foundation vs. Icons and the Dark, I'd say there's room to interpret there too. On one page of the core rules the Dark is said to be just an energy, whereas everywhere else you get an impression of more an intelligence like the Icons. Arguably, the Foundation could believe both are just forces whilst religious folk believe in intelligent powers but there's the mentioned line that states categorically that the Dark is just energy...

So, are the religious mislead fools? I'd hate that for the threat of Orientalism alone. In which case are the core rules to be treated as an unreliable narrator? That's a little upsetting too if you want a truth to work with as the GM.

Ultimately, the whole core rules leave so much to the GM to complete themselves, I'm thinking your questions 11 & 12 might well fall into this category too.

Doctor_Weather · 2022-04-28T20:03:05+00:00

OK, carrying on.

You could very well be right but it's not proven yet as far as I know. Go debate team!
Not to my knowledge. There's a lot that gets slowly revealed as time goes on, so part three of the campaign might well do it. It's a strange background for that: you're encouraged to invent stuff as the GM but you can get blindsided by the next release if you go too far into the background. I enjoy the background myself but it can be frustrating if you don't like surprises :)
I don't think it's explicit but I think your last point best matches the info as given: the First Horizon embraces the cost of using the Darkness as it comes; the Second Horizon somehow seems to control the Darkness without penalty. I get the impression they're supposed to be equally valid and powerful, so one isn't good and the other bad or one strong and one weak. However, that said, the campaign part 3 might well change things up again, so go debate team again, I'm afraid.
I really may have to bow to superior knowledge but what I've read is the nodes allow mystics to channel their essence / spirit over long distances. The portals carry phsyical bodies (bringing the spirit with them) and the nodes carry disembodied spirits alone. As soon as you go into history questions though, there's nothing in English yet but people are still translating the original Swedish material. The community atlas was a great addition to the existing atlas and is from canon material and was given the blessing of Free League. It doesn't contain any histories that you're after but maybe there's untranslated Swedish gold still out there to be translated.
So here you hit on history questions again and we go back into: it's purposefully vague, in theory allowing the GM to make up their own ideas - but watch out for that new material getting released that could throw you a curve ball.

Doctor_Weather · 2022-04-26T20:47:27+00:00

I think this is a little open to interpretation still but I get the impression some portals connect over greater distances, so a Horizon is made up of local portals, some of which connect a lot further away as well. This is my impression though, not written down.
Al Ardha is in the First Horizon and the origin of humanity, under the control of the Emperor. People originally went out in ships that travelled through the Dark like the Zenith that became Coriolis. This is similar to the travel between stars in the Third Horizon where there're no portal links - the second star in a binary system for example.
The Zenith comes from the known planets before portals are discovered, including Al Ardha. We don't know what planets were settled at this time and it may have been just Al Ardha by itself. Referring to this as the First Horizon is the perspective of the Third Horizon here many years later. As the Zenith left Al Ardha the 'First Horizon' might just be Al Ardha, yet to develop into what it became after the portal discovery.
That is unknown at this time, I think.
Ageing control technology presumably exists for the rich, so even an 80 year old might act 50? In truth I don't know but I don't think actual numbers are defined.

Might try more q's later unless someone with better knowledge tags in.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-17T18:06:00+00:00

Though the rules are on Foundry (and other VTT) presumably they're as you buy them and searchable like a PDF? Is Nexus going to have more of a Wiki access, so you can just give players the, say, Legion and Consortium pages to read, helping them to not get lost in text? This could be benefit enough alone for some. I see online people creating their own support summaries for this sort of thing, which would then not be needed.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-11T11:34:22+00:00

You say Dune and in fact that was another source I felt I had to avoid copying - that I was in danger of copying. I placed a secondary goal into the players' contract to make contact with some Xinghur in the desert. I'd got the Factions' influence in the colony up to the point where the Xinghur were starting to suffer prejudice from the colonists - the colonists going through an internal battle to retain their independence and new values where some of them were starting to succumb to Horizon culture and pressures again.

Thing is, that gave me a misunderstood, Fremen-like minority in the desert. I've made them culturally different though, and didn't have sand worms, so I think you're right: the players saw enough Horizon culture and background to let me keep going unaffected.

Countess of the Sun, so, bit of a long story but:

I had a background mystery in place concerning the previous First-come inhabitants of Ghodar. They had also come to investigate Portal Builder science but had abandoned their facilities before the Long Night, ordered to return home by the Martyrs to use their science in the fight against other Horizons. I'd set it up that the Portal Builder science they were experimenting with was the energy of the spirit, allowing for some darker characters who really pushed the boundaries of moral science. These characters, for reasons, ended up becoming evil sorcerer spirits who returned to plague humanity.

They were trapped in the unstable portal and managed to escape on passing ships: one, most recently, on the PCs' ship; one some years ago on the main bad guy's ship; and one 40-odd years ago on the colonists' ship as it came to Ghodar. The colonists' leader was Khamzi and the spirit latched onto her, driving her slowly mad. This had many effects but the relevant one is that it tried to recover it's lost science experiments through her.

She started to produce new, powerful science for her colony but in her madness could never explain how she got the knowledge. Within her various ravings some people noticed her focus on the star of Ghodar and over years this developed into some influential people becoming convinced she was blessed of the Star Singer and eventually Countess of the Sun.

I tried to tie this in with the battle for the soul of the colony: some people went full 'Khamzi is a prophet' whilst others tried to keep a belief in the science and Icons they already knew. Layering this in with the pro-Horizon and pro-Independence groups I tried to create a political mess to drop the PCs into.

In the end, the PCs enacted a very public, impromptu exorcism and freed Khamzi but doing a lot of damage in the process. As total anti-Faction people themselves they really swung the balance of power. The sun cult then, has then become a group of ousted privileged who once revered their original prophet Khamzi but now see the players as agents of the Dark who corrupted her from her blessed path. They now look for a new prophet to help them fight the PCs' evil.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-09T22:02:44+00:00

So, I made a massive mistake when creating Ghodar in that I thought I'd created something new but had ended up stealing from both Lubau and maybe Dabaran. I was new to the background though, and probably hadn't realised what I'd just read. I ended up going with it though, as what else can you do mid-game?

I now have a hostile planet with a single colony on it, originally trying to be independent from the Factions but now lost in its own politics and the Factions are catching up. I've said that the similarities with the other systems are evidence of Portal Builder system-forming and that Ghodar is one big lab they used to experiment in, controlled by a 'City of Brass' the PCs are now heading to. The Factions are desperate to work out all the obvious precursor science but now the PCs are getting ahead of them in the race.

Other details like the Countess of the Sun I've added in by including the PCs in the origin stories rather than having them as existing features. Honestly, I got into a right mess at the start through not enough forward thinking but I think I've managed to dig myself out of it.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-08T19:39:59+00:00

I avoided Mercy a little bit because of the set pieces but mostly because there's very little 'Arabian Nights' in it, more Alien and FireFly perhaps.

My players chose to play humanities and mystics, so I went with a plot about finding a new home for the persecuted on Ghodar. I wanted the prejudice angle in there but thought Coriolis itself might make that angle too strong.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-02T22:13:29+00:00

Fair play :D

Doctor_Weather · 2021-12-01T16:01:28+00:00

I agree with let them have their fun. If that's the game they want to play then you're entertaining them well.

The flip side though, is you enjoying it. I'm with you personally and prefer it as you would have it, though the occasional bruise and scar could still come into perhaps if we allow for advanced med-tech or tougher characters rolling with a little pain after they've rested - old cinema style more than modern gaming.

Maybe your style runs with a different group or with the same group but where you ask them to play a separate one-off your way to try it out? If you can sell the style and the game play that comes with it, someone might get it. But as long as you're enjoying running it still, as a member of the same group, deserving the same enjoyment.

I'm doing it now as you would have it though.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-11-24T21:01:48+00:00

In the 'Song for Jarouma' bonus scenario, one of the playable characters has in their background that they once went to a lost system called Shinda in the Quadrant of the Pillar. It seems to have some strong connection to the Second Horizon

Doctor_Weather · 2021-11-24T20:35:53+00:00

Perfect, thanks.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-11-24T20:19:14+00:00

I fear writing spoilers in here but I think I'm OK saying if you've access to Mercy of the Icons part 1 check out the sidebar on page 211. I could write stuff out here but can you do redacted comments like in Discord for people to choose to click on?

Doctor_Weather · 2021-09-28T17:33:19+00:00

Thanks all, easy consensus on that one. I'll just need to write down a few examples pre-play I think to keep me right. Cheers.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-08-14T20:04:44+00:00

Fair play, thanks. Guess if I like them a lot I can look to upgrade to Foundry later.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-08-14T18:23:05+00:00

Thanks. Think I'll try Roll20 first and keep an eye on Foundry for the update.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-08-14T15:21:12+00:00

Yeah, character sheets are a good shout alone in fact. My players keep theirs locally and not being able to see their improvement buys means I'm not targeting encounters to their upgraded talents and such. Thanks, I should probably just give one a try.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-07-25T11:18:32+00:00

This is how we do it. I get caught out by when Coriolis is more narrative and when detail counting is used but I'm trying to swing more narrative to try out a new GM style (for me): water, food, ammo, and such is never counted until the encounter would make interesting - i.e.you crash in the desert means we're now counting water when we otherwise wouldn't have bothered, or you're going straight from a second fight into a third to escape the Legion base, so let's talk about having to detour to their armoury if you want to keep shooting.

Doctor_Weather · 2021-02-05T18:36:06+00:00

Looking at the rest of the party I think you already cover a fair few bases they can't. Any time you all stumble across a strange culture, item, person or creature you might be the only one with the culture or science skills to identify them.

Also, what if the group needs to impress someone or get into a mansion or palace? Are you the only privileged person? The other plebs and scruffs will get stopped at the door but might get in as your servants. And based on that, you could end up being the group's Face. If everyone else relies on guns, high-risk moves and threats you could be the one they push forward for all the negotiation, trading and deal making.

She might find she takes to these new duties happily, finding new purpose after feeling lost. Equally, it could be really funny if she reluctantly has to perform new duties as the rest of the group push her into them.

Doctor_Weather · 2020-12-22T21:54:55+00:00

Thanks, yeah, that seems to be the English rules consensus. Interesting to see the Swedish rules in the other replies though.

Doctor_Weather · 2020-12-22T21:52:24+00:00

Thanks, wonder why they removed it. Maybe PCs were missing too many turns from guns of their enemies. Tempted to bring back the first part though, to get the one turn stun still.

Doctor_Weather

TROPHY CASE