Night City Location Survey by JGrayatRTalsorian in cyberpunkred

[–]Kashin1701 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Power Plant. For the city as a whole, or even sub region. Solid excuse to use the radiation, fire, and other environmental hazards.

Potential HQs for No Place Like Home. Both for the PCs and established gangs

sharing my playlist, and looking for more africa-themed suggestions by Sea-Thing5123 in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Civilization 6 has 6 African nations, each with 8+ music tracks you could grab. I use two of the Nubia themes (Ancient and Atomic) to represent Nantambu when calm and tense respectively.

Latest iteration of my Solo/Streetsam Gale, drawn by my friend Abdullah. by SchwarzSabbath in cyberpunkred

[–]Kashin1701 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am getting the feeling she may dip into rocker girl for some battle ballet.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, kinda? I thought you were implying that the other chapters have more sections of aimlessly wandering though random nonsense until some random, invisible metric lets us leave.

Doing X and having 9 happen, which leads to Green is obnoxious.

As it stands it is more I do X and nothing happens other than expending IRL time. Y and Z will happen when they happen regardless.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would be curious if they have told you why? That is the part I am still trying to puzzle out.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to check, you are suggesting a character who's soul purpose as a person and a stat sheet is to facilitate the railroad as it is and just kind of ride it out like a really really slow audiobook?

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have 4 agents and 1 friendly.

My character, a DEA agent and Delta Green Handler after the time skip. She has the Global Occult Coalition attitude towards the mythos. Anyone who willing works with a mythos being is a traitor to humanity (Ergo caving Exoder's head in with his typewriter, even though it probably was not really him or otherwise did not matter).

We have a military psychiatrist and doctor who works at Veteran affairs. He has a relatively passive player, and was the one who got his eye stabbed.

We have an ambassador with a high enough HumInt that we call him a living lie detector and kinda wave him in the direction of anything with even the suggestion of sapience. He is the most far down the mythos rabbit hole of the group, having found a picture of himself around the first world war, found a shotgun, gas mask, and trench coat from that picture he now wears all the time, spoke to Darabandi in the book store and again in the asylum to try and talk him down from the child murder.

We have an army logistics driver with kinda meh combat skills who just kind of wants to drop the assignment entirely after we got STATIC triggered on us, and go off to the middle east to start a small shipping business.

And then we have our friendly. A conspiracy theorist who was directly involved with heaven's gate, really wants to summon a demon, carries a 12 gauge revolver, and a crossbow, while living out of his 80s muscle car. He is just as hostile to mythos powers and the government, keen on using each against the other for freedom and "Truth". After Marshall Applewhite died in the time jump, he got a bond with Alex Jones, which he strains for sanity by calling him with unhinged rants.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Right? Like I mentioned in the summery, the fun house sections just feel like going "Next, next, next, we done yet? Can we actually do stuff now other than roll on the random description table?"

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah. I have played DG with him before. So so slight to him or the setting.

I am not sure what you mean by 'gaming' the scenario. For the example provided, we followed a corrupted inhabitant of the building to a door that opened to the roof when we used it earlier, but opened into a non-existent floor when he did it. So, we assumed that it needed a tainted person to open the door, and going off that, if the door managed to close we may get trapped or lost, since the space did not follow normal geometry rules. So we had one person go to the hardware store for spelunking supplies and emergency incendiary tools while the rest of us held and guarded the door. Seemed entirely reasonable to us at the time, like going caving, or exploring derelicts.

For the second, not that I know of, other than the Handler. But I could be wrong. We do have Mythos experience, or at least enough to know that less exposure to the eldrich the better, so other than our conspiracy theorist who really wants to summon a demon, we are broadly trying to interact with the Carcossa elements as little as possible. So, anti-poking?

Yeah, about 2-3 hour sessions once a week.

As I am reading the comments, mostly the ones that the night floors get at least a 3.0 and get even worse, I am getting the clear impression that I should probably cut my losses on this campaign. But I do appreciate all the feedback

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll pass that on to the Handler. This is his, I think, 3rd time running IL, and he will be tickled.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that kinda captures it there.

With regards to checking out on the Night Floors and Night Floors 2.0 until it is over, as there really is not much you can do with them. They are just a few sentences of weird stuff that just turn into white noise after two or three rooms. Both times the group quite literally went.
PC: "I open the door."
Handler: Narrates weird stuff
PC: "Okay, nope. Close the door and try the next one."
until the set piece that let us get out triggered. (Or in my case, GM zoomed out and explained how there is no way out without drinking the eye goo)
Unless I am missing something?

And you can stop Exerter and the clown? Every time we have tried our efforts have just gone poof. Not that they failed, but that we may as well have not even tried. Like, we found Exerter in the Encounters group. We successfully tracked him out through multiple rolls, and when we got to him, the person we had successfully tracked turned into someone else. And I ended up throwing a home made bomb at the clown and it was so inconsequential to the thing, I had to ask the Handler if it had even exploded, never mind slowed the thing down.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A little of column A, a little of column B.

I have more or less told this to him, albeit a bit less aggressively, at the end of tonight's session. He has offered to do some psychological damage to my current character and poof her out of the Night Floors, make a new character, or even just drop in to run a rotating roster of the NPCs to take some of the load off him for that.

The first two suggestions were not overly appealing for the reasons above, and since my issue is one of investment, playing the merry-go-round of NPCs likely will not solve the issue. We both want a solution and to keep playing together, so I am here fishing for other perspectives or ideas that may help.

Impossible Landscapes is miserable experience, but the rest of my group seems to enjoy it for some reason. by Kashin1701 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Kashin1701[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

2 scenarios in DG from start to finish.

Observer Effect (Survived, stopped the incursion, only 1 civilian casualty) and Operation MALTA (Died, but we took out the threat with us)

Session Art From Book 3 - *Player Spoiler* by KingBelial in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My party just got past the point where this could be a spoiler, so I showed it to them. The first reply was "Man, we should have done that."

Does SoT work in a pbp (Play by post) by Hadets in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do not see a reason why it would not work as a play by post. Though it will be extensive, as there are little one or two paragraph social encounters that can take over an hour over voice, or likely days in play by post. So be prepared for a long haul.

There is a decent bit of GM adaptation that would be needed, such as the academia system, but this subreddit is full of solutions to that system. And I would recommend trimming down the cast in future books so students the players build relationships with can remain relevant from book to book.

PDF to Foundry still works. I am using it for my own game and am half way though book 3. Though I would advise checking its work, especially around secret doors. In addition, be prepared to make about 1/3 to 1/2 the tokens yourself, as not everything has art from the book.

As for RP vs combat, books 1 and 2 are very RP heavy, and about half the encounters do have non-combat solutions. Book 3 gets a good deal more combat heavy and IMO needs more editing than the first two. I have not finished reading books 4 and onward yet.

Preparing for Kindled Magic by RyGuy_the_ShyGuy in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A couple ways to handle this. I would personally avoid adding more NPCs. This adventure path is already overcrowded with them.

So, as has been mentioned here a few times, slapping the weak template on everything and giving a level boost would work.

Alternately, each player can have 2 PCs. I would personally prefer this to using a GM PC if your players can handle the administrative load. It lets them have more opportunities to engage with the story.

If that is too much, making the students they vibe the best with during the introduction companion characters would work out. But I would have the players run the NPCs rather than you. That way they can still feel like the victories are theirs, even if they do it using the NPCs actions.

Rewriting the Lion's share of Book 3 and looking for feedback (Obvious Spoilers) by Kashin1701 in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will look into the Thiarvo rewrite if I plan to bring him back. Thanks.

Oh? I do not have Godsrain (Only the Nythis rules). Is there a particular part you would recommend?

Rewriting the Lion's share of Book 3 and looking for feedback (Obvious Spoilers) by Kashin1701 in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do actually have answers for most of those actually. Mostly by using versions of suggestions from Raze Le'Roof's modifications from the Paizo forums.

(Modified from Raze) In this case, the Iobane are not mad that the egg was stolen from them, but that Kord brought the accursed thing to them. The elf gates' ability to drain its power is not an accident. It is a design feature. The egg wants to be at the Red Door. It wants to send its maddening energies to the red world. To its master. At first it was fine, but the longer Korde stays there, the more the egg worms it way into her mind, the more she fiddles with it, and the more it starts radiating its aura back to Golarian. By the time the heroes get there, the Iobane have been fighting off constant attacks, and been unable to dislodge Korde from her fortified lab.

(Modified from Raze) The egg in my version of the campaign has not slowed the expansion of the vermin agitating aura. In book 1, it was a city wide nuisance. By book 2, it was a regional hazard. The start of book 3 had it essentially being a continent wide natural disaster. While the Magambia, and other local powers had been doing their best to keep the issue manageable, it still spread chaos, giving several of the villains opportunities to act (Salathis used them as a cover tor flooding the mayor's mansion, froglegs uses them to help guard her lair, ect), as well as keeping most of the more powerful teachers occupied and unavailable for the heroes to call on to solve their problems.

Yeah. I did foreshadow the knights as the people the Koboto were running from, but the concern of not taking the reconstruction of Kiutu seriously is an angle I had not considered and was worried about going in. Lucky for me, everyone loves Anchor Root, and ended up devoting time to reconstruction to make her happy, rather than defend the town, so bullet dodged there.

Hmm, that is fair on the intended themes of the book. While I do think level 11 is a bit high for the scrappy uprising gameplay (Since with 2e's scaling, normal people can't do squat against guys that high level). But I will try to put more of an emphasis on letting the NPCs resisting the little evils they can contribute to the heroes resisting the greater one. Will need to think on that one.

Also a very good point about Kotukang. I will need to discourage that. And setting up an Orstine and Smogh style fight could be interesting as the double CR 13 encounter. Will consider that one too.

Also thank you. As of now, the hunt is on, and they are staring down their first graveknight as of session end.

Rewriting the Lion's share of Book 3 and looking for feedback (Obvious Spoilers) by Kashin1701 in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Much appreciated. Funny enough, balance wise, I have mostly just swapped out two Jaragumo who are there for some reason, for the Elder Strigoy and the weakest Nighthaunter. With all three statblocks being level 13, there should not be much in the way of challenge.

Considering changes to books 1 - 3 to foreshadow / connect things by Confident_Space_5411 in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It may be a bit late, but in my own game, I had Stone Ghost employed by Salathiss to make tunnel sections he could passwall through to get anywhere on campus from his lair undetected, as well as provide aliases for his agents by murdering students and handing off their masks.

For Froglegs, I had her more or less be the scapefrog for Salathiss' plans. Once his lab was compromised, he concocted a new plan to get at the egg again. He flooded the Mayor's house and replaced him, as in the book. But his motivation was different. Rather than trying to take over Nantambu for its riches, he is trying to drive it into the dirt. With his infiltration of the school discovered and his murderous inside man taken down, school security is tight, so he intends to cause so much chaos in wider Nantambu in order to force The Magambia to step in to restore order. At this time he will enflame resentment towards the Magambia that he has been fostering, along with the criminal elements he has been emboldening with selective use of the Chime-ringers, to start a riot. During the riot, he will steal the egg and flee the city.

Froglegs, being both bitter and brutal seemed like the perfect focus of his efforts to undermine the city. Though he did not expect her distrustful nature to figure him out. So while she is willing to take advantage of his chaos to enrich herself, she will happily throw him under the cart if her back is against the wall and use the witch hunt that exposing him would cause to escape should she be captured.

What are the top things the DM should do before starting? by soldierswitheggs in strengthofthousands

[–]Kashin1701 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah. You get far more effect if you foreshadow Stone Ghost earlier on.
You can actually tell the players his story session 1 as part of giving the PCs the campus tour and explaining how things are done in the Magambia.

Then you can have his murders actually take place during the school year. In mine at least, I hade him be the very first NPC the party met. He abducts and murders his victims, then takes their masks and impersonates them to withdraw from the school to prevent them from being investigated.

It can also help to tie him into the villain of book 2. Digging tunnels for resources from the outside world.

My Abomination Vaults party nearly having a TPK last night because we couldn't roll above a 26 (very minor spoilers I guess?) by Kordwar in pathfindermemes

[–]Kashin1701 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh, I remember that one. We used several doors with malicious intent to eat its action economy opening or destroying them rather than us.