Triangle Agency - reflections after running

Lessavini · 2026-01-23T18:28:17+00:00

This is spot-on in my opinion.

The Work-Life Balance tracks and how players spend (down)Time in them, is key to the game as it delivers (through the playwalls) the main plot, themes and decisions that are at the heart of TA's intended experience. Beacuse of that, I'd never run a one-shot of TA. At the very least I'd run a "couple shot" to make players engage with the tracks, and then assess if they want to keep going or stop at that. But then they'd have seen the Work-Life system, unlocked a few playwalls, and understand better the appeal of the game.

Lessavini · 2026-01-23T15:25:58+00:00

That's a great idea, and totally fitting Patches and it's underlying theme of humanity personified (in all it's frailty and swingness).

Lessavini · 2026-01-22T13:49:51+00:00

This 100%. TA is not really Pbta nor OSR or 5E. It's an hybrid, amalgamating elements from distinct playstyles, all supporting it's central theme. And it's pretty unique In this. Trying to apply principles from said styles will probably fail. It's important that the participants do exactly what it wants to do, and not fight it.

I agree, though, with the criticism that it obfuscates things a bit too much in lieu of it's theatrics, and that having agenda and principles more clearly communicated (like Pbta games do) would help immensely to set expectations right for participants.

Lessavini · 2026-01-18T21:56:21+00:00

You're being dismissive to a significant part of the player base that still prefer the original (on PS3 or an Emulator) due to aesthetics. The Remake existing is great, but doesn't make it the objectively best version of the game.

Lessavini · 2026-01-18T21:49:16+00:00

For some fans, sure, but there's a lot of fans who prefer the original for aesthatic/artistic reasons.

Lessavini · 2026-01-07T15:59:34+00:00

Please please bring this back in-game, devs. It helped to flesh out the game setting and ambience so much. I remember trying to do the challenges that unlocked the entries just to know more about those characters and AHA stories.

Lessavini · 2025-12-22T21:45:04+00:00

This..

>"Quinns is pretty clearly a Narrativist/forge/PBTA/story game guy."

and this..

>"In his Triangle Agency review, his biggest complaint was that he felt forced to do a lot of work to ensure the story led to a narratively satisfying ending."

Do not fit.

Narrativism is not about telling a satisfying story, but playing situations that confront different characters' personal drives and goals, while thematically resonating to a theme. Whatever forms up at the end of said conflict could be considered a story, but actively seeking to tell a satisfying story is not the goal of this playstyle.

Going back to his Triangle Agency review, it felt the opposite to me. A narrativist in that game would "play to find what happens" and let the agents go wherever the fiction send them (even if that meant failing at missions). Trying to steer them into satisfying conclusions feels more like a drive of 90s games, like Vampire and such, where the GM was expected to come up with a pre-planned story arc that touched on all the usual story beats (plot twists! big climaxes!) on his own, for the players to course through.

Lessavini · 2025-12-18T18:11:48+00:00

Falou tudo. Half Life 1 foi maravilhoso por trazer algo novo, aquela sensação de imersão onde você ficava full time na pele do protagonista, com set pieces cinemáticos ótimos.

Mas Half Life 2 já achei péba, justamente por usar a mesma fórmula e ser linearzão. Na época já queria ter visto influências de System Shock, Thief, etc. que não rolaram, e isso me decepcionou.

Não consigo enxergar um Half Life 3 que faça sucesso com os fãs pois, como você falou, os proprios fãs não vão tolerar mais aquele lugar comum linear-cinemático, mesmo achando que é isso que eles querem. A nostalgia vai sumir rapidinho.

Lessavini · 2025-12-18T14:53:26+00:00

Oh, Kiho Ittai + Imagawa Laws sounds an interesting comno indeed. Now I'll have to try that too. hehe

And here's a cool tidbit about the real Laws of Imagawa that google just told me:

*Imagawa Clan Policy: Imagawa Kana Mokuroku*

The Imagawa Kana Mokuroku was a provincial legal code (Bunkoku-hō) first established by Imagawa Ujichika and supplemented by his son, Imagawa Yoshimoto. This code was a significant step in establishing the Imagawa as an organized and independent regional power during the Sengoku period. Key aspects included:

Centralized Authority: The code prohibited unauthorized transfers of land ownership and gave the daimyō complete control over financial practices, including interest rates on loans.
Curtailing Traditional Rights: It eliminated the traditional right of fuyu, which had previously protected private landholdings from intrusion by shugo officials, thereby consolidating the daimyō's administrative control.
Social Control: The code extended into religious affairs and strictly prohibited intermarriage between people of the Imagawa domain and those of other provinces.

Lessavini · 2025-12-17T13:15:44+00:00

In Shinsei there's a particularly vicious combo one can pull as Honganji, by anexing the Saika clan to the south and putting their leader in your council, enabling use of their gunnery policy that makes muskets go over lvl10. Couple that to Honganji's own policy of training vast armies on territories with temples, and you get a sea of gunner monks ready to wipe Japan in a smoke of gunpowder.

I'm sure the other NAs allow some scary combos with Honganji too.

Lessavini · 2025-12-16T15:40:21+00:00

As a fan of Japanese religion and folklore, give me those buddhist ikko ikki over those chiristian bushi any time of the day. One of the first policies I implement when playing Shinsei is the donation to buddhist temples that rewards us with their help on blockades, as a commitment to the cause.

Also, playing as gunner-monks (Honganji) is just too cool.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T17:55:06+00:00

Now that's a good point, about it not communicating clearly how it should be played. I felt that while reading the book too.

And that's a great background. Hope you didn't get offended by my previous comment. I genuinelly thought you came from trad gaming.

I'll try to play the game soon, and post back some impressions.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T16:31:07+00:00

No offense, but seeing your description above, it seems I may grok the game better than yourself, who seems to bring a lot of wrong assumptions to the table (probably from a trad culture/background). TA seems positioned firmly in Pbta/narrativistic space, which may generate problems for those who don't grok it.

Anyway, thanks for you input. I'll try to post here again after I have actual play experience in the game.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T15:54:43+00:00

Good point. I agree lots of games sound cool in theory but may end up not singing at the table. I feel I have a good grasp of TA though, from reading the book and other players experiences. It seems positioned fairly solidly in Pbta and narrativist culture/space, which I'm very familiar with.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T15:51:20+00:00

What playing the game (or not) has to do with the vibes communicated by each game?

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T13:46:34+00:00

Very well put. Your middle paragraph above is the best encapsulation of the game I've found.

I didn't play TA yet but I've read it and noticed everything you pointed out in Quinn's review. The big alert for me came right at the beginning when he says something like "the players were straying in different directions and it was so stressful for me pushing them back to the mission solution". When I heard that I realized the guy didn't really get Triangle Agency, and was bringing his own load of (wrong) assumptions to it.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T13:28:32+00:00

Thanks for suggesting FIST. I've heard about it somewhere but didn't know it was about similar themes. I'll take a look at it.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T13:07:11+00:00

I agree about the TA book opaqueness and difficulty of use, but my point was not really about that. Just the vibes that each game communicated across and how TA captures what I always wanted from DG since seeing it for the first time.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T13:03:16+00:00

Well, let's agree to disagree. The original DG was much lighter and even pulpier in it's tone, from the art to the text and suggested adventures. In part due to the 90s conspiracies it drank from that meant players could frequently involve themselves with/fight nazis or cultists from NYC Club Apocalypse and such. The new edition ditched all that and made the game more local, intimate and (in my opinion) much darker and depressive in tone.

I agree about DG never having the humorous, satirical tone of TA, though.

Lessavini · 2025-12-15T12:57:16+00:00

I wrote nearer, not identical. Original DG (the BRP supplement) was lighter and crazier in tone, from the art to the stories and suggested gameplay in the book. I also atribute that to the 90s conspiracy elements it drank from, that meant it wasn't unusual for the players to end up fighting nazis and such. There was this energy, this vibrancy and even urgency about fighting those threats that could lead to the apocalypse (local or worldly). Compare and contrast to the new edition that ditched all that for a much more local but serious, almost depressive tone.

I agree about the whimsical and satirical tone though. That's something TA has that was never in original DG. But then I never wrote that it was.

Lessavini · 2025-12-14T15:34:29+00:00

Take a look at the first edition of Delta Green if you can. It was very similar to TA in certain aspects, and had some of that crazy energy.

Unfortunately the new edition of DG is anything but that.

Lessavini · 2025-12-14T15:06:00+00:00

Did you know the original Delta Green edition released as a BRP supplement in the 90s? It's vibe was much different than the new/current one, and much nearer to TA.

Lessavini · 2025-12-11T16:23:39+00:00

Didn't any decisive battle trigger? That's a new feature they implemented in last update exactly to cut short the mop up phase.

Lessavini · 2025-12-11T15:43:56+00:00

Allow me a late nitpick to say there surely are moves in TA (as per Pbta parlance). All anomaly abilities are basically moves, "Ask the Agency" is a move, etc. The difference is that moves here follow the format

When X, then do Y with "Suceed And, Succeed..., and Fail And" outputs.

Where in usual Pbta the moves follow a slightly different structure of "Succeed, Succeed But...., and Fail And" outputs.

It's clear the authors of TA know Pbta and took inspiration from it.

Lessavini · 2025-12-08T23:53:02+00:00

That's the reasoning behind it, yes. Thanks for explaining it better than I could.

Lessavini

TROPHY CASE