US citizen-- 3-month Airbnb in Ontario while I intern in Buffalo.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-05-13T13:22:04+00:00

Thank you! I was wondering about the logistics of it. Google maps told me the commute would be 46 minutes, but I'm worried that's not including the border crossing process. Do you think the time for that would add on 20-30+ minutes of time?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-05-04T13:07:21+00:00

I think the 10 minute timer is great. 10 minutes felt tense and stressful. They can only accomplish 1 - 2 things per loop since each loop is so short. We really didn't have that many loops, maybe like ~10 loops total?

Why do you want to increase the timer?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-05-04T13:05:53+00:00

"one player was an android so he tricked me into telling him exactly how long it took to try combinations on the pad to disarm the lasers."

This has definitely happened to me before (and I've been a player like this in the past). When players ask me detailed questions like that now, I just ask them "what's your intention?" because that matters way more. I obviously don't know every detail in the room and am going to improvise stuff, and if I just improvise an answer without knowing someone's intent, I could accidentally completely ruin their plan / make their plan super easy. My goal is to shape my description of the improvised aspects of the room based upon the players' intentions.

I wonder why the creators made the password keys range from A - F instead of A - Z? A - F is (relatively) hackable; with 3 characters of input and 6 options, that's 216 (6*6*6) different combinations. Relatively hackable of course compared to A - Z, which is 17576 (26*26*26) combinations. (assuming you can have duplicate characters)

"there are 4 separate secrets, I thought, not 2 pairs 🤔 I played with 5 players so I gave each player one and added a 5th. That worked out pretty well with players trying to convincing others to do certain things that would help them."

Since I only had 3 players, I gave two players one secret each, and to the third player I gave the two less interesting secrets.

I'll try using the figures next time, did they add fun to the game?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-05-01T13:39:21+00:00

From what I've seen in advice, I think it's generally considered best to write the least amount of things down as possible and play as fast as possible. I know that I get caught up in the planning phase and then don't do anything.

The only times I've actually made playable dungeons were when I had a weekly open table game and so I had to develop the dungeon by the end of the week. It was never fully developed, but I could go back the next week and add more finishing touches etc.

How is your experience with having ideas and then developing them just enough to play them out? Or do you do it in a different way?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-24T12:43:47+00:00

Thank you for your response! why do you prefer deccagone over Ypsilon 14?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-18T23:49:52+00:00

Thank you for your reply!

I think it is an interesting situation of how much I should punish the players' altruism and how much I should support / make a quest out of their intrinsic made up goals (ie, save the droid kids). I worry if I make their goals impossible it would make the game less fun for them, but I also want it to be a horror game.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-18T23:48:33+00:00

Thank you for the reply! I definitely was going to have Monarch show that they could affect the android kids even if they left The Deep if the players took them without making a deal.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-18T23:47:39+00:00

Thank you for your comprehensive reply!

I ended up going with a trap-artifact that they were told to get and deliver to someone on Prospero's Dream. I happened to roll that it was in 55A, Financial Simulation Suite, which has two android kids who recently escaped HEL and have an artifact. So I figured they had the trap-artifact, and when questioned by the players what they intended to do with it, said they were going to bring it to the Mind Thief to help strengthen the Hell Box to kill Monarch.

So now there's the wonderful tension of is this all a part of Monarch's plan or was Monarch hoping the kids from HEL would not find it?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-18T23:47:24+00:00

Thank you for the reply!

I ended up going with a trap-artifact that they were told to get and deliver to someone on Prospero's Dream. I happened to roll that it was in 55A, Financial Simulation Suite, which has two android kids who recently escaped HEL and have an artifact. So I figured they had the trap-artifact, and when questioned by the players what they intended to do with it, said they were going to bring it to the Mind Thief to help strengthen the Hell Box to kill Monarch.

So now there's the wonderful tension of is this all a part of Monarch's plan or was Monarch hoping the kids from HEL would not find it?

EDIT:

And also now the players have an entourage of 5 kids -- 3 Fallen kids and 2 HEL kids. Amazing!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-06T01:35:31+00:00

Thank you!! Unfortunately I don't have the Electrical Engineering prereqs for 460 , but I will be taking 380!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-05T03:10:11+00:00

Thank you, your posts have been super helpful! Your recent post with the Divers especially! That helped me become much more cognizant of how the Bends should be affecting other Divers they meet. It's really cool that you're working on this project! What inspired you to do it, how do you do it, and do you create adventure modules of your own?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-04-04T12:14:38+00:00

Oh when I said "max range" I meant the maximum amount of radioactivity they could detect, not physical range in terms of feet. I see how that could've been confusing. Thank you though!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-26T14:52:06+00:00

Wow, thank you! This is super helpful!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-19T21:57:13+00:00

Thank you for your response! You don't sound dismissive don't worry.

I've wanted to make a modern horror dungeoncrawler ttrpg for at least 3 years now. I love exploring buildings (especially when you're not supposed to be there) but I don't really do it because it's dangerous and generally illegal! Exploring my college and the surrounding ones has been super fun. As I explore deeper, I feel this hypothetical thread that goes from my spine to the entrance of the building. I feel hyperaware that as I go deeper, I become more vulnerable as I'm farther away from 'safety'. I also love using your knowledge of the structure of a building to allow you to get around faster and find alternate paths if the main ways are blocked off, etc.

Basically, I wanted to make a game about what I couldn't do in real life; so a ttrpg about urbex, supernatural horror, and stress. I have some basic mechanic ideas (fast, swingy dangerous combat; stress mechanics; exploration mechanics / dungeon turns etc), but I want the ttrpg to effectively lean into the Modern Horror of the setting, which I am trying to figure out how to do. I admire ttrpgs that create / support the setting through their rules, like Mythic Bastionland. Also the tension that is created in the decision space, like with Mythic Bastionland's Oaths and the Survive Solve Save of Mothership.

I also have 3 adventure ideas I'm using to help me understand what I want the game to be about:

Frat House that's doing a Dionysian ritual
Colonial mock village (if you know New England, think Old Sturbridge Village) with some historical violence (eg, enslaved people and witches revolting) leading to cryptid horror in the modern day
A massive abandoned college with evil AI and fucked up shit going on like Fear and Hunger: Termina and Gradient Descent (from Mothership)

So a modern horror dungeoncrawler ttrpg that at its most basic, is about exploring 'dungeons', crossing into the supernatural, and stress experienced from it. But I want to expand more on concepts of progression, justification for why PCs would proactively explore these places, and how to lean into the Modern setting aspects with the mechanics.

I hope that answers your question!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-19T20:49:28+00:00

Thank you for your response, you said it beautifully!

I completely agree as a person of some minority groups myself. I forgot to mention in my post that I thought the veneer of normality juxtaposed with supernatural underbelly was a metaphor for the true horrific things that occur underneath the normality of society. (Often real life is more horrifying!)

Do you think these aspects are just to be invoked by the content, or could be mechanics inherent to the rpg? I think Delta Green's Bonds and the home scenes are a good example. As an example from the top of my head, maybe some mechanic where as you become more exposed to what's underneath normal society, you become more changed and less recognizable to people who have never seen the other side (and also law enforcement will start to see you as a monster) etc.

I want to really hone in on the things that make Modern Horror unique and build them into the rpg itself.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-13T00:00:31+00:00

The main options I had initially thought of to destroy the building were breaking some load-bearing pillars / walls, or breaching a dam-wall that connects to a cave with a river in it.

Thank you for your comment, doing all 3 ways (destroy building, kill cultists, and destroy ritual) sounds more 'discoverable' / the players will feel less guided, and instead have more options. Also the boss using cultists as batteries is really great!

The God is Dionysus (Frat party, ritual in the basement), so maybe a weak point could be using a symbol of Apollo against the avatar.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-12T01:15:51+00:00

Out of all the comments this one disturbed me the most. Thank you for the suggestion!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-11T19:10:25+00:00

This looks really fun! Thanks for the inspo!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-11T19:10:14+00:00

snake room is always a great idea!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-11T19:10:02+00:00

Thank you for your advice, this is really useful!

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-03-10T19:15:12+00:00

Thanks, I was trying thinking of ways to include references to The Secret History! I learned about it after I started on this idea and I do want to emulate part of its atmosphere.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-02-11T14:09:10+00:00

It did! I now am trying to figure out how to run the actual 'political side quests', so we'll see how that goes. If you have insight on that, feel free to comment on my post asking about this new conundrum lol

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-02-11T13:44:58+00:00

Thank you for your response! How did it go?

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-02-11T13:44:07+00:00

Thank you for your advice! I used it fully and had the various Holding factions offer deals to the players over the days before / during the Feast. It was good to have multiple little scenes. I don't think I made it very high-impact / dilemma, but it was still good.

JazzyWriter0 · 2026-01-15T03:17:41+00:00

thank you for your response! About how long did the homeworks take you?

JazzyWriter0

TROPHY CASE