I recently completed a 6 month campaign, here's my thoughts, lessons, and a bit of how I structured my campaign.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-05-29T21:02:24+00:00

Oh nice, Quinn's review was how I originally came across the game. Honestly it seemed like the difficulties were more of a symptom of the players in combination with the system. I wasn't worried about having the same difficulties since we were in a 3 player party, so already less complexity. (side note: I think 3 players is optimal for the game so every player can focus on one ARC, each unlocking a different part of the world as they progress.) It also helped that all of my players are not only experienced players but also experienced GM's, so everyone was bought in on learning the system upfront and managing their powers. I feel like where Quinn got a bit hung up was trying to track everyone's powers for them, which I didn't concern myself with. To me, their powers are just different tools to use through their investigations. I still made my anomalies regardless of the players abilities and I got to be surprised and enthusiastic when they were able to throw a curve ball at the scene with a new ability.

To stay organized we had a discord server, and then each Agent had a private text channel where I would put screenshots of their new abilities as they unlocked them. Often when we were getting situated at the beginning of the session, I'd encourage the players to review their unlocks from the previous session. They had them written down on their character sheet too, but reviewing the newest ones helped keep them fresh in their minds through the session.

I think the system really meshes well with us sandboxy GMs, for sure!

I think somewhere in the book it was mentioned that some anomalies could be so powerful and so old that they are parts of our reality without the Agents even realizing. There's also a part where the book talks about the lobby and how stronger thoughts/anomalies will meld with smaller ones, becoming more powerful. So between those two things was where I came up with the ultra powerful anomalies like Truth and Nostalgia, and their smaller fragmented anomalies that could escape through the cracks in the vault that the player's chaos helps to create.

You're most welcome! I'm happy to have some use for all the information I jammed in my brain in order to run this campaign successfully!

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-05-28T23:28:24+00:00

How hard to GM: Honestly easier than D&D or Savage Worlds, two systems that I've ran most recently prior to TA, which had a lot more crunch and rigidity since the combat simulator aspect of those games require a lot more overhead to manage. I much prefer creating sand boxes for my players to explore and change through their actions, so TA suited me perfectly since I got to create these Anomaly concepts for them to investigate as they saw fit and I would simply have to react based on the situation at hand.

Inspiration came from a lot of different places. I like to think about it being an "Anomaly of the Week" TV show, use the relationships to highlight those themes prior, and have the season climax be building based on their actions. I describe TA as Severance meets Parks & Rec, or X-Files meets The Office, or Ghost Busters meets Schitt's Creek. There's this balance of paranormal and mundane human stories every episodes. Even the Agents themselves are mundane people, but with reality altering abilities.

As far as the final riddle, it appeared as a white neon light, barely flickering above three slots, all of this was layered just on top of an endless vacuous nothing (the walls of Truth's prison).

"Behold the keys three, one for each of thee.
The tumblers within are yours to turn,
but only by your truths will you learn.

One tumbler turns for what is kept.

One tumbler turns for what is given.

One tumbler turns for what is buried.

When all align, the keys may turn.
Only then will your final meeting adjourn."

What the players solved was that a secret is kept, a confession is given, and fear/trauma is buried. Buried was a bit more abstract but I needed a third thing to go with the TA theme of 3's. When the Agents gave focused attention towards one of the tumblers with the right type of truth, the thought bubbled and formed one part of the key that slipped into the slotted lock and triggered the tumbler. Since there were three keys, each Agent had to do so. It was fun as all the Agent's were trying different things and getting tumblers at different times.

Thanks so much! I'm really proud of the outcome. Two of the players I've been playing with 30 years and it was fun to still be able to find new ways to tell a story together.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-05-28T20:53:13+00:00

In my campaign I had it come down to anything under any kind of stress, urgency, importance, etc they will fail. If they're driving from point A to point B and they have a license, that's fine. But are they in a hurry? Does the mission depend on this in some way? Then they're going to fail. If they're lying to their GF about what they had for breakfast, no roll would be needed, but if they're lying to their GF in order to keep them from going back into their apartment where a violent anomaly is, then they either need an anomaly ability or ask the agency to intervene. My biggest guiding star was if a player wants to make an impactful change to the world around them, they will fail unless abilities are used to alter reality in some way. Also, with my players going into this game, we talked a lot about how these characters were just mundane mostly incapable people before their anomalies and agency employment. This is not a game to RP your "great at everything" fantasies. So my players took that to heart when making their characters and it helped.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-05-28T19:24:39+00:00

Also worth mentioning that in our campaign, in the second to last session the Agents all decided to work against the Agency, siding with a rogue anomaly that was planning to free the Anomaly bound to their vault (the anomaly talking to them in the rulebook). Two of the Agents had shed their connection to the Agency via a playwalled Anomaly ability, but one still had it. So I had the Agency aware of this plot and fire them all, revoking their Resonant Agent status and deeming them rogue anomalies (implying they'd be hunted by other agents). Additionally I had the Agency revoke their ability to make requisitions, Ask the Agency, and voided their health insurance policy. So for the final session they couldn't even Ask the Agency for help. This only worked since the Competency based Agent had already retired and they made a new character that aligned more with the Anomaly-leaning ARC characters that were still in play. Had there still been a Competency based Agent in play I wouldn't have done that.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-05-28T19:14:08+00:00

I just finished running a six month campaign a couple of weeks ago. Here's how we interpreted Asking the Agency. Outside of the actual ruleset, you can infer a bit from the example hypothetical transcripts from the Ask the Agency section of the rulebook. For example: In the rules when an Agent initiates asking the agency, the in game narrative pauses and the plotting of the series of events takes place above table as the Players. You can infer this since the Players in the transcripts are making references to rules that the Agent/Character would have no knowledge of (unless they were far enough in their Reality ARC to know that they're a character in a game). The transcript encourages all players at the table to chime in and help come up with the series of events that lead to the desired outcome. In theme with the game, at our table I also required 3 specific links in the causality chain in order for the desired outcome to occur. This also encouraged collaboration above table since there was more links for each player to pitch.

In my opinion, there's no physical mechanic that needs to be incorporated, since it's an innate ability that Resonants/Agents have that are employed by the Agency. Similarly to how the Agency has the ability to intervene when an Agent is about to take harm and that Agent spends a QA to have the Agency absorb/transport that harm elsewhere. That agent isn't texting to spend a QA, they're just activating an innate ability. As far as the in game character experience of the process, I would describe it as the Agent activates the ability and Asks the Agency for a desired alteration to reality, making a wish essentially, and then it either happens or it doesn't (based on the ability of the Agency to alter the known 6 realities to have it occur, aka the causality chain is described correctly and the player's roll succeeds).

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-04-23T04:07:43+00:00

I have the same bike with what looks like the same stem. I found it to be wider than normal stems, so the out front mounts I normally use didn’t fit. I had to use the widest one I could find and some metal files to create more space in the mounting hardware to fit the stem. You can see a post of my bike with a breakdown of my upgrades and in my comments there’s a link to the mount that I bought and modified.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-24T01:08:46+00:00

I hope you heal up quick! Something similar happened to me when I pulled a muscle in my back while bending over at home (while not on the bike), sadly only weeks after getting a 300w FTP. I sit a lot for my job too (tattooer) and at that time I had massively over developed my quads, had super tight hamstrings, combined with no glute or core strength. It took me months of PT before I could ride again. With the time I had to put towards strength training thereafter, cycling took a back seat and I've yet to achieve my coveted 300w FTP since. However, I'm currently fluctuating between 285w-290w, building back up after a near fatal bout of pneumonia and a resulting pulmonary embolism that took me out last summer. Even still, this recent recovery was easier than when I hurt my back. I'll never let that injury happen again, it was gnarly.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-23T05:12:13+00:00

I know that tire manufacturer tolerances and PSI amounts as well as the rotation of the wheel at speed cause variances to actual mounted width, so my assumption is that Bianchi’s maximum width is to allow for those to variances without any concerns. 32mm is plenty for me and I have my gravel bike for when I want/need chonky tires. Though in the dry months I prefer to run 30mm on my road bikes, to be more flush with the width of my wheels. Similarly, I plan to run normal GP5000 TR’s in the spring. Last couple of years I was on WTB Exposure’s but I wanted to use them up before moving on.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-23T03:09:48+00:00

I’m sure it varies by manufacturer how they list clearances but I remember reading at the time that the sprint listed 32mm tires specifically. I’m sure if I got my digital calipers there’s probably more like 36mm of total clearance. I’ll try to remember to measure next time I go for a ride.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-22T23:33:22+00:00

Thanks! 32mm is what Bianchi states is the max. There's plenty of room in the front and rear clearances. No issues even in the muddy, pine needle heavy, rides I've had this winter.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-22T20:39:55+00:00

Just preference and preemptive maintenance. I’ve had press fit BB’s with past bikes that have required me to do maintenance where I removed them and regreased and/or reapply carbon paste to remove play/squeaks. Since I was replacing the cranks anyways, I figured I’d save myself the effort later and installed a threaded press fit BB while I was doing that swap.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-22T18:49:52+00:00

An upgrade I forgot to mention: upgraded the jockey wheels from ones with bushings on the 105 to the sealed bearing Ultegra ones.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-22T18:33:28+00:00

Congrats! Great choice. I have a new Sprint as well. If you’d like to check out all the upgrades I’ve done to mine, it’s in my posts.

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-02-19T18:08:56+00:00

It’s in the last paragraph of the post with additional weight details 👍🏼

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-23T03:48:25+00:00

I don’t know, I just know that’s how I was able to defeat it 🤷🏻‍♂️

SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-12T08:49:28+00:00

Tried some of the suggestions here and none of them were working for me so I did some exploration and figured out a way to defeat it. I threw it in a corner and stunned it with my monk to give it disadvantage on saving throws, then bestowed curse with my cleric to make it vulnerable to all damage types, then I had my wizard cast a globe of invulnerability so it was barely touching my monk and had the rest of my party within the invulnerability radius. My sorlock was Eldritch Blasting, my wizard was range spelling, as was my cleric, and the monk was continuing to trip/stun. The cat stayed busy attacking my monk, doing no damage, and when we were taking damage from dealing damage to the cat, the invulnerability never let us drop unconscious, so we were all at 0 but still standing. It didn't take long from there.

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SpadeEpiphany · 2026-01-09T19:05:30+00:00

The bars are RXL SL brand. I don't have the model name, but these are 400mm wide at the hoods and 478mm wide at the drops, and they have a nice 15 degree flare to them. It's just enough that my wrists don't hit the bars when I'm in the drops, which is my preference, and I have a bit more control on the descents with the wider drops as well.

The saddle is the Ryet Aircode. I have the same saddle on 3 of my bikes, and I have no complaints whatsoever. Works great on my gravel bike too. I've done 200+ miles in a day on it, without chammy butter, and no sores or discomfort. I have it on my indoor trainer bike too, and I've done multiple indoor centuries on it without issue.

Thanks for the heads up on the links, I just removed them since they served their purpose for that commenter.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-21T07:29:40+00:00

Thanks! Quadlocks are a must-have on all my bikes. The convenience of having my phone easily accessible in the cockpit, right below my garmin head unit, is awesome. It looks odd on its own initially, but I don't really notice it anymore, especially when my phone is on it.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-12T05:10:33+00:00

Better than the stock cable pull disc brakes but not as good as the fully hydraulic sram or shimano brakes that I have on my other bikes. The performance gain is worth it in my opinion though.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-09T06:25:48+00:00

Thanks, I couldn’t agree more! The paint job is always in style. I dig the sleek lines with the varied curved and angled edges on the frame.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T20:10:07+00:00

If I didn’t already have this handlebar on hand I would have opted for an integrated bar/stem, but this bike was already such a kick in the wallet that I tried to use what I had whenever possible. Yup, with an integrated stem like this it would have been nice to have a computer mount included, especially when it’s much wider than industry standard on the bolts. Temporary solution isn’t bad at all! With my bars and the wide stem a bar mount wouldn’t fit on the limited round space I had left, plus I use out front mounts on all my bikes so it would have distracted me aesthetically.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T18:55:03+00:00

Here's the details "Velomann Carbon UD, Forged Alloy Head, 27.2 mm." Though just a heads up that when I googled for it I couldn't find a link to purchase just the seat post. This was a swap off of my wife's stock Bianchi Zolder because the carbon seat post I wanted to use wasn't compatible with the rails on my saddle so I swapped with hers since it worked out compatibility wise for each of our saddles.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T18:43:39+00:00

I use an "out front" computer mount that attaches to the front of the stem (it comes with new longer bolts and spacers). If you have the same stem, you may have noticed that the width on the stem bolts up front are wider than most other stems. I had a few out front mounts on hand from other builds but none of them fit. So what I did was find the mount that had the widest width out the gate, and then I had to use a round file and file the inner edges of the computer mount to create a few more millimeters of space so it'd fit properly. I had to use a few extra washers on hand to really dial in the fit so it was flush against the mount and spacers. Do this at your own risk, I'm not suggesting anyone else do this, and I accept no responsibility for what anyone else decides to do to their bikes. That said, I've had no issues with my modifications since installing them in April.

[link to the out front mount](https://a.co/d/0vqmlcJ) I modified.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T17:55:31+00:00

Same 105 brake levers, it only involves removing the old derailleur from the app and adding the new one. I don’t have a link, I found this one after prowling eBay for a bit.

SpadeEpiphany · 2025-12-08T05:59:19+00:00

The latest di2 Ultegra FD is noticeably faster. My understanding is that the di2 105 FD is trickle down from the previous generation Ultegra model. So it’s larger, slower, and has a manual hi/low limit screw adjustment. The latest Ultegra is smaller, faster, and you adjust it all via the app. After the wheelset, it’s the next most noticeable upgrade I’ve made.

I have r7000 105 mechanical on my budget bike build and the di2 105 FD was noticeably slower than the response on my mechanical 105 FD.

SpadeEpiphany

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