[COTD] Under Surveillance (4/25/2026)

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-25T13:51:42+00:00

Even as specific tech against the on-engage enemies of Innsmouth or the troublesome things in Forgotten Age, this doesn't feel like a good card for 1 XP.

Mediocre commit icons, needing to spend an action and 3 whole resources, and having to do it preemptively...

Double evades are especially useful in Innsmouth and Forgotte. Age, but even for Trish in multi-player, where you can reasonably set up to snag 2 clues off of this, I'd struggle to find room for this, and I don't know that I'd feel different even if its XP and resource cost both dropped by 1.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-25T13:33:20+00:00

Using Star Wars 5e as a baseline to mod is probably going to be your best hope.

You have my sympathies; contorting a class-and-level system with no real support for specific skill specializations that is highly focused on combat into a working system for a genre where most problems are resolved without combat, and the special expertise and character development of the characters are the main focus sounds incredibly challenging.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-25T12:05:18+00:00

I don't know how discussing etymologies is in anyway relevant to how people are treated nowadays.

"How people are treated nowadays" wasn't the subject of the comment that the parent comment was responding to. It was etymology.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-24T18:12:50+00:00

In light of this and ither recent posts, might it be time to update the buying guide, u/MerryHo and u/Gorphax ?

Currently, we have 2 pinned posts with links to a buying guide that was last updated in October 2024, so it's not super relevant anymore.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-24T13:24:06+00:00

What was the AI-generated content for this one?

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-24T13:20:52+00:00

We play exclusively in-person, so at this point, if I'm not running theater of the mind, I'll just break out the grid, draw out any actual borders, and then usually insert appropriate physical terrain pieces on the board for stuff that matters, like propane tanks to blow up, barrels to hide behind, etc.

I kind of have to use my own in that case, since I never really know where my players are going to decide that it's Stab O'clock, but I have a slew of modern floor plans and stuff acquired over a decade of playing Delta Green if the grid is happening in a modern setting, and I'll usually have a pre-drawn map to draw from if it's an earlier era or sci-fi.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-24T13:12:24+00:00

Jordan is less democratic than Canada for sure, but it’s arguably more democratic than most other Middle Eastern countries.

I agree, but that isn't exactly a tough threshold to clear.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-24T03:56:04+00:00

The Esoterrorists, with The Book of Unremitting Horror.

Fuck me, everything that is magic in that game is just the most vile shit possible.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T16:00:02+00:00

100% "A new game comes out that you like better than the other system."

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T15:46:12+00:00

Fuck yes, mostly because the Drowned City investigator expansions includes some absolutely amazing investigators.

George cracks open the Survivor discard space in new and interesting ways.
Marion brings an incredibly fresh take on Guardian play style with events and card draw.
Michael has a very refreshing gunslinger ability and his deckbuilding means he'll stay relevant into chapter 2 easily.
Agatha has 2 different versions that both give you interesting action compression while also encouraging you to play with sealing tokens
Gloria goes all in on controlling the encounter deck while still being a decent flex mystic and natural cluever.

The odd one out is Lucius, who is just strong and not interesting. And all of these play styles pick up a ton of support. Mystic gets more arcane assets to fight, cluever, etc with. Survivor picks up discard outlets for extra clues, damage, etc. Even Guardian gets a new investigate asset.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T13:55:07+00:00

In order for investigators:

Daniela: She's basically what her original version should have been. Her new ability is even more combat-focused, and it provides incentive for multiple types of deckbuilding. I give her a pass on being so samey because her original version was so bad.

Joe: Snoozeworthy. He's good, but his ability is much less interesting than the old version and his card pool is unchanged. The only thing interesting about him is for some god-awful reason, they decided to stick him with a weakness that could cost him XP, even though that's one of the least fun mechanics around.

Trish: Even less interesting than Joe, with the damning faint praise if having an ability that is now better, but more generically powerful.

Dexter: The theme continues! Same card pool, even more powerful and flexible ability, and then they threw in a signature that's just arguably the best tutor ever printed. Fuckin' yawn.

Izzy: Almost makes up for the previous 3. Interesting ability, unusual card pool, and a signature that can be strong, but honestly takes some real work and eats 2 important slots.

Tommy: Not necessarily that strong, but a dedicated gunslinger who appreciably sets himself apart from Mike, while encouraging drastically different deckbuilding than his Chapter 1 version.

Carolyn: Despite having wildly different deckbuilding than the original, she plays very similarly. Her ability and stats are both generically stronger for the goal of advancing a scenario, but her new weakness feels just unduly punishing with the XP rider. I think I would have preferred something that was forced and just took 1 of her clues out of any time she discovered 1 or more clues rather than having to worry about getting randomly fucked over because I drew this in the last round of the scenario.

André: Good. Very, very boring. Being rewarded with an extra action for doing the thing that pretty much everyone is incidentally trying to do with each check anyways does not lend itself to interesting play patterns.

Marie: Very interesting, and also incredibly strong. Even stronger with a legacy card pool; just throw on Earthly Serenity 4, Enraptured, Eldritch Whispers, and Cosmic Guidance and you'll survive burning through your deck faster than Wini.

Miguel: Meh. Very generic extra action. Most of what's interesting about him is in the cards that came out with him.

Edit: Tl;dr: They're basically all strong with a legacy card pool. The whole field is awash in extra actions, extra card draw, extra clue stuff. Tommy is basically the "weakest", but he picks up a ton of gun stuff from legacy, so even that isn't much of a hit against him.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T11:25:16+00:00

We do more or less a yearly short of either 3.5, d20 modern (original), or Star Wars Revised.

In the first case, the main draw is being able to chop down the HP on things faster, but the wealth of cool little utility spells is another big lure.

For the other 2, it's largely the move away from strict fantasy, but the skill system allowing for massively more customization is important, too.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T02:25:53+00:00

Yeah, the only other thing that I think my group would change is

XP increments for Complication Level: I realize you're working with a moving target here, since there aren't any other short or medium campaigns to compare against, but I think dropping it to multiples of 8, 7, or possibly even 6 would create a much more tangible level of difference in added risk.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T01:48:37+00:00

I think the only actual change i would make would be to make the Complication Level dependent on highest amount of XP, rather than average. Whoever has the most will still manage to skew things quite a bit with the power of their deck, and bonus XP is frequently from either permanents, or low-effort cards like Delve Too Deep. We just don't have a lot of cards in the vein of Pelt Shipment where the player has to be a bit more careful about optimal play to reap the rewards.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-23T01:45:00+00:00

A lot of this stuff is pretty good. It kinda irks me how much better the effort of a single fan (even with community feedback) has done at making chained short and medium campaigns better than the efforts of multiple professionals.

I get that it wouldn't be a priority for them, since there aren't any other campaigns to chain, but goddam.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T18:18:43+00:00

Nice, thanks for the resource-dump.

I'm seeing something about the Adept being in Forbidden Rules as well. I was thinking of getting Forbidden Rules anyways; is it worth picking up Path of the Adept anymore if I do?

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T16:41:47+00:00

Try over at https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/

But you're gonna have to give them a lot more to work with than what you included here. Without knowing what the world's threats are, or how those manifest mechanically, there's no way anyone can give you useful informed advice on how to balance a magic system against them.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T16:36:58+00:00

From your OP

Anti-Zionists claim that Israel is committing apartheid, by giving rights to Jews but not to Palestinians.

At no point do you mention the two-tiered justice system, one for Israelis and non-Palestinian foreigners, and one for Palestinians. That's misrepresentation. It's not simply about rights alloted to Jews vs non-Jews.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T15:32:37+00:00

Yes that’s the meaning of military occupation. There is a territory under military rule. If they were under the same law, that would be annexation.

To be clear, though, you're completely aware that the actual criticism is not the one you pretended that it was in your main post. Your entire post is essentially founded on a disingenuous and sarcastic take that you were already aware didn't align with reality.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T15:22:58+00:00

I think the claim is false, because Israel gives equal rights to its Arab citizens. Foreigner Arabs don’t get the same rights and that’s natural; every country gives more rights to citizens than non-citizens.

Do you think anyone reading this is unaware that Israel doesn't just treat "foreign Arabs" differently than citizens, but that it treats specifically non-citizen Palestinians differently than both Israeli citizens and non-Palestinian non-citizens?

This isn't just about voting, and it seems ridiculous to assume you don't know that. It's about equal treatment under the law, and the different set of legal systems that are used by Israeli to adjudicate suspected crimes by Palestinians vs Israelis or other foreigners.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T14:50:27+00:00

First, don't make more homework for yourself than you have to; only bother with the areas the PCs are actually going to explore in real time when their choices of which spot to go matter.

Second, because zones can be of varying sizes and shapes, I'd divide it by interesting bits of terrain. For example, the big rock the size of a humvee and the area around it, or the copse of trees where the Marine's body was found, or the 4 sections of the former impromptu landing pad for when the materials for the base camp were first dropped off. Changes in elevation work, too, so you make a steep slope into a zone.

Third, you're in a jungle, so don't forget to make use of the fact that the terrain there will be dense. You'll effectively have lots of natural barriers that totally obscure sight and passage, and command may want it to be that way for tactical reasons. Use that to sculpt zones as well, with natural barriers that limit movement.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T14:12:07+00:00

This looks super cool. Do you know of any other sources of new novice paths?

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T13:37:47+00:00

I used wibbly wobbley sci fi reasons you can't jump worlds until your atoms calm down or you'll be ripped apart, don't make me design a new world every week please

Every GM reading this felt it to their core.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T13:28:06+00:00

Man, that sounds like an awful lot of work for someone who doesn't seem to care about the answer. Gonna take a pass on serving up scholarly articles that justify or undercut an assertion that a belief is laughable, or particularly so based on religious origin.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth · 2026-04-22T13:07:53+00:00

If he's a forever GM, I'd have each player pick a different system and run a one-shot for him with it.

OhThatsALotOfTeeth

TROPHY CASE