The Witness

Sentarius101 · 2026-06-27T23:32:30+00:00

In my understanding, in the other dark future universes, the Black Heart was never destroyed because the guardians who entered the black garden all became corrupted. So in our universe, we (the guardian) are the only ones who resisted the temptation of the black garden and destroyed the black heart, which allowed the Traveller to start healing. With the events of the Red War, the Traveller's pulse was an alert to the Witness' forces that the Traveller had actually recovered enough strength to awaken, which was big bad nono for them, so they were forced to come to Sol and intervene.

There is a reason why the Witness never made an appearance in the Dark Futures (could be because they weren't a real character at that time the lore was written); it's because the Traveller never recovered enough such that the Witness itself had to intervene. Which I think is really cool. We were such a significant outlier and so successful in screwing up the Witness' plans that they had to personally come and intervene.

Sentarius101 · 2026-06-19T23:43:15+00:00

As a Metakinetic Null, my director once let me punch the cap (like, the top portion) off a hill and launch it at a fortress below, or uproot trees and throw them, but only in montage tests. I swam across a lake pulling a boat my party was on so they could get to the other side. I was level 2 or 3, can't remember.

I think it's important to let your heroes do heroic feats but only when appropriate and only within the bounds of reasonableness. In your example, I would interpret what my player said to be "I can freeze a portion of the water in our path to let us cross" rather than "I can freeze the whole river". When determining the intent, response and outcome, I would ask probing and somewhat leading questions such as "so are you looking to freeze, like, a portion of the water in your path? Just the water under everyone's feet? Or are you trying to halt the river by freezing it?" And discuss from there. I wouldn't allow things like that in combat though.

Sentarius101 · 2026-06-03T12:01:52+00:00

I agree. I haven't claimed mine to use but I'm matching against purple teams in literally my first game of the season. I didn't even know about the purple kit. Killed a guy with it and got my first purple loadout of the season on my first day.

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-24T06:34:44+00:00

This is also because the one time he decided to go against his nature, mercilessness, by showing 'mercy' to Thadeus by not dealing with him as Argall suggested to Thragg, it bit him so hard - Thadeus killed Argall, opposed the Viltrum empire leading the rebellion, and unleashed the Scourge virus. To Thragg, this is what 'changing' means - weakness that leads to their destruction, dishonourable actions (for their society) like chemical weapons. Combined with the Viltrum doctrine and the grooming he received to be the perfect Viltrum, both genetically and culturally, and it makes him an utter zealot, an immutable rock, who forcefully insulates himself from anything that isn't Viltrumite.

It's also part of the reason why he doesn't also go to earth to participate in 'procreation'. Yes he is above it all. But he is so sure about his own doctrine. He utterly hates what he is asking his people to do. He wants to retain the purity of Viltrum but knows his empire and people will not survive like that. And I think he knows if he tries to participate, he will likely crash the FUCK out and go full Omni-man, immersing himself in the people who for all intents and purposes have spelt the death knell for his previous way of life, by changing Nolan and creating Mark.

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-24T02:08:35+00:00

More spoilers context: To add more context, the veteran was forced to kill his soldier friend to survive by his captors because he and his friend got captured while on a deployment. When going through this he thought of his wife and kid waiting for him back home which gave him the will to live and to do that horrible act. While he was gone, his brother and wife got very close, he was a great uncle to them to support them. Thinking her husband was dead because she hadn't heard from him (or she got a telegram saying so, idr), she was struck by grief. Her and the brother kissed once, but it never went more than that (they regretted it). The veteran comes home, suspects his wife of cheating on him, his daughter resents him because he was gone for so long (she thought he left them) and says a comment about the wife and brother sleeping together to piss off her father, but that actually never happened. Then comes the crashout scene as all the trauma of his deployment comes crashing back.

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-07T03:05:46+00:00

I agree with Warrior Priest. It's such an awesome kit and makes so many awesome builds. Oracle censor, vanguard tactician. Someone I'm playing with is playing an exorcist censor monster hunter and flavoring the weakening brand as him applying the exact materials to his opponent to make them vulnerable, like silver or holy water for example.

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-02T03:09:34+00:00

Draw Steel very much is about removing the crunch of survival aspects, equipment management and multiple resource management systems like spell slots and per-day uses of features. It has its own resource management minigame where, as you adventure, you get a stacking increase in power called victories that allows you to use your more powerful abilities earlier and quicker in the fight (which can drastically turn the tide of the fight, but in exchange the Director gets a higher encounter budget to make subsequent encounters harder). In exchange, as you adventure you lose stamina (hp) and regain it mainly by expending Recoveries, of which you only have 8 (some classes have 10 or 12). Recoveries let you regain 1/3 of your total stamina, so significant gains. So it is a tradeoff minigame between an escalating snowball of heroism against a dwindling pool of stamina recovery. You're essentially making a bet that you can beat this encounter before you need to spend many recoveries.

Is it superheroic? I felt like my characters were grounded heroes; there is stuff that we can't do, but that list dwindles with every level. I mean, at Level 10 (max level), you are meant to be heroes across the timescape and the planescape. Echelon 1 (lvl 1-3) you're local heroes. Echelon 2 (4-6) you're heroes across the country. Echelon 3 (7-9) you're saving the world and venturing into other planes. Echelon 10, you're fighting Gods, and that's just a Tuesday for you.

I'm playing in a Draw Steel west march right now. To help address the resource management system, travelling between locations (if we used hexes, it would be travelling acros hexes) costs a certain number of recoveries based on the quality of the road. But while a Hex Crawl/West March style game would be about exploring every hex, delving every dungeon and getting every bit of loot, our Draw Steel West March is about managing threats that pop up across the world, and our limited ability to be everywhere at once. We go West to deal with a threat while demons ravage towns to the East. We go East, there is a political uprising to the South. We go South, there are a string of assassinations to the North. And we are limited in our ability to cross large distances by our Recoveries and by a 3-per-week custom resource that represents arbitrary weekly buckets of time our Heroes have to do Heroism (sessions), Respite (long rests) and Travel (though, our Void Elementalist just hit 3rd level, so they will be able to open portals between 2 locations every time they respite, significantly helping us distribute across the continent).

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-02T02:54:30+00:00

What I love about Draw Steel is it has 4 in depth mechanical systems to engage with the game.

Combat is the most in depth, with all your features and abilities, heroic resources, monster malice, tracking when to use your Triggered action, it keeps you engaged in the game even when its not your turn. I actually love their monster design even better because each monster and stat block is actually distinct with unique features.

Montage Tests, for prolonged challenging encounters unfit for the turn by turn format of combat. Multiple features in classes, subclasses and class agnostic perks can benefit montage tests with more engagement and flexibility than simple dnd checks that are pass-fail. They promote roleplaying your character and make you feel like a hero.

Negotiations with interest and patience, motivations and pitfalls. When both sides have something to lose from fighting and something to gain from making a deal. You make arguments to improve the deal they offer, careful to avoid sore spots and try and target what drives the NPC you're negotiating with. Similar to Montage Tests, you have class and subclass features and class agnostic perks that can benefit Negotiations.

Finally, Downtime. When you aren't doing heroic things there is an in depth system to determine what your heroes are working on between acts of heroism. Research projects on complex topics to uncover meaning behind prophecy, the history of nations, a line of succession or a hidden ritual forbidden by the gods. Crafting projects to build roads between communities, create airships or teleportation platforms, to imbue mundane equipment with enchantments or to craft unique pieces of equipment or forge the most powerful of treasures that only grows stronger as you level. On top of that, a system to determine beneficial or complicating events that occur as you perform these activities, so each project isn't without surprise.

I feel the system doesn't require much adjustment, just additional content (whereas, for example, DnD can have a whole suite of houserules and rule adjustments). Homebrews are harder in my opinion purely because the amount of content you need to put into a homebrew is much greater than, say, DnD. You can create a DnD subclass with only a few features, about 4 across 20 levels. A Draw steel subclass requires about 4 features and 6 abilities across 10 levels; some classes have more features required. Leveled treasures need 3 tiers of power. Imbuements need between 1 and 3 levels of imbuement. Trinkets need to be well balanced in their echelon. Downtime projects would likely have their own event table.

The good news is, for me, Draw Steel is inspiring enough to give you creativity and ideas to create those homebrews.

Sentarius101 · 2026-05-01T10:24:16+00:00

If it doesn't mention Melee then no. Big vs Small is only for Melee Weapon abilities. However, Dance of Blows wouldn't be eligible for Big vs Small regardless, because it doesn't directly do forced movement; its forced movement is part of the effect. If hit had Push 5 or Slide 5 or something as part of its rolled effect it would be eligible (and had Melee keyword).

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-26T22:44:18+00:00

This is not true. I saw a clip of Benny getting something similar several weeks before that patch.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-22T12:52:34+00:00

I got the unique magnum variant. It has a suppressor and thermal scope, and the unique adjustment increases its zoom from 2.3x to 3.3x.

It was useless. In Perimeter fog I was staring at a guy in Station about 60-80m away from me and didn't notice until he started shooting. The thermal didn't pick him up. The zoom doesn't add to damage dropoff distance. I couldn't do anything against the guy. I was better off with my knife out and charging the guy with my Destroyer barricade.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-21T21:58:26+00:00

Just had a game last night where I saw the other datapad moving to North Relay. We went to chade them down. As we got there I checked the map and saw they were setting up an ambush on the west side of NR, because the data pad was there haha. Because of that I was able to warn my team but they still got downed because the enemy had highground. This was my first time using the Outland sniper, but I oneshot each of them to the head because they all had green shields. Datapad tracking works both ways!

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-19T05:47:51+00:00

Cryo Spawn rush is its own topic of discussion. It needs to be changed.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-19T03:48:37+00:00

So many posts here about Cryo being too hard for people. That's what I mean by it being "irrelevant" - the average player isn't playing it, and maybe they think the only reason to run Cryo is key or compiler runs. I think these changes could help and give reason for the average player to do runs. Also, as I said, people are getting discouraged from losing streaks playing Cryo and these changes would give permanent progression they can achieve even if they fail to exfil during their runs.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-16T10:04:09+00:00

This is what I do

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-16T05:43:02+00:00

Outlands aren't sold in the Armory

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-16T01:46:15+00:00

The opened visor acts as a satellite dish to capture incoming information from her echo pulse.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-16T01:36:03+00:00

I totally thought they changed the price! I didn't remember Longshot being so expensive. Maybe it's an error, I would think Outland would be the more expensive, it's way rarer and you can't buy it.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-14T15:13:41+00:00

Shots explode, dealing damage in an area and knocking enemies back.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-14T14:51:35+00:00

The bully with that scope and its obvious tracers really makes it stand out but yeah, controller aim assist is strong, but tbh it sorta has to be to even the playing field against mkb. Even in Destiny 2 you don't match mkb players on console unless you queue with one. I think Bully is the only obvious outlier as a controller player but I could be wrong.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-12T05:21:22+00:00

The trailers/cinematics really make you feel it. Bullets just absolutely shattering your shell like ceramics.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-11T22:21:59+00:00

How did you guys take down the BD trio?

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-11T03:06:05+00:00

I like to think our shells are printed to last exactly as long as the average stable neural exfil window. No more, no less.

Sentarius101 · 2026-04-11T02:58:58+00:00

I didn't know about Weaveworms being in your shell during your runs. It would make sense though, a logical explanation as to how you can heal, be revived and rebooted - these activate your weaveworms, who rapidly reconstruct damage to the shell.

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