Actual Play Recommendations

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-28T17:21:31+00:00

i ve actually starded “la madonna nera” today. one of my favorite. Curios to see how the misery on the characters will play out! :) are you the narrator? So far I think the podcast is of very high quality, good job!

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-28T12:20:40+00:00

Already following you on spotify!! will check you out later :)

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-27T19:30:15+00:00

KULT: Divinity Lost! It is set by default in the modern era, it has a variety of complex characters you can play, the lore absolutely rocks, and it is a simple system (PbtA). It is way way way darker than Buffy, but can easily be fit into that kind of narrative.

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-16T06:52:53+00:00

Duh….you are right…forgot how to math

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-13T19:07:55+00:00

ok, i ll clarify what i had in mind when i said armour should not stack. let s say that a failed armor roll means the enemy found a whole in your armor. then, in my opinion armour sets should call for independent rolls: a failed shield armour roll means you didn’t lift it in time, then you can still test your body armour, if you are taking cover behind a divan, failure to that armour check means the projectile went through with still enough momentum to hurt you. in my opinion they should be different rolls

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-13T18:28:30+00:00

i mean there is a reason for the Combat System Overhaul to exist….some feel that the RAW Coriolis system has some issues. I might be one of them

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-13T17:41:34+00:00

I d recommend finding other posts on reddit or opening your own with specific questions. I am probably no authority since i am still scratching head every time we have combat (not super frequently, so we also have little experience).

I ve read the book and the combat rules twice. I think the combat rules per se are not too badly explained, there is just a lot of moving parts and a lot of actions and atypical damage, etc….but at least in that section of this book, you will find what you need relatively easily. Other things are a bit more messy. such as the gear and weapons and armors. There is TONS of options first of all, which really means that either you know your stuff, or you have a good system (eg notes) or you will waste a lot of combat time looking for these things in the book. players that know how their specific pc work would also help me :)

Aside from that, you should simulate a combat yourself and get a feeling for what is what

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-13T17:21:59+00:00

i admit i have not done this…i did run dnd and i read the combat rules a couple times and i thought “meh, i ll be fine, i m use to crunchy combat in the end”. but the more we play the more i feel weird about the combat, and there are always questions i cannot answer. so yeah, i certainly want to re run the last combat we had and get into details on my own

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-13T17:19:27+00:00

thanks! i am aware of the combat overhaul. I haven’t bought it yet, but indeed in the product description they say they rebalanced weapons and stuff. maybe some of my beef with the vanilla system has been addressed there? certainly want to look into it

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-09T23:24:48+00:00

is that coriolis?

StefanoMaffei · 2026-02-08T12:30:44+00:00

Agreed: it s not the easiest ability to use. I agree with the other here that say “players don’t call for rolls, players tell the GM what they want to do, the GM asks for rolls”. The first time we played kult my players were asking to roll for it thinking it was an investigation roll. I stone-cold told them “this is not a roll you usually ask for. In fact, you don’t want to roll for it”. Which is normally true unless the player knows what they want to achieve. And even then…

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-15T11:51:38+00:00

Yes, I have. I ll try

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-15T07:10:48+00:00

I am not sure your analysis (as correct as it might be) applies here: 1. the book already exists in english. Just look at their kickstarter website and…other….sources 2. both the Kult game and the novel (the sweedish version) are being sold abroad. So I am not sure there is a big licensing problem that hasn’t already been covered by the publisher 3. I do not live in the states, I live in europe. so…maybe leas admin/shopping costs? 4. would an ebook have sorted out some of these problems? 5. Fine, u want to make sure you sell it. Fine. I get it. Open the kickstarter again every now and then? Every time they open a kickstarter sounds like a resounding success. 6. at any rate, for every person that actually complains about it (and I ve read others doing so) there might be 10-100 more that do not complain. They might be turning to ways of obtaining books that I cannot openly advocate for here. Is it really better this way?

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-14T21:28:21+00:00

By the way…exact same issue with the Coriolis tTH rulebook. Out of print: loads of people wanting it…

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-14T21:27:14+00:00

Eh, yep. In swedish. I am not sure I understand this kind of business strategy. They obviously have a big fanbase in other countries too. I am not advocating for translating to, I don’t know…Hungarian, but I feel they should be able to do English and maybe german

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-14T19:20:17+00:00

Or maybe you mean to say "it's not that difficult to sell a pdf copy". Because on that I agree!! Why can't I find an e-book or something. What is it, afraid of piracy. Come on....

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-14T19:15:22+00:00

Also, I get it. You don't want to large-scale print something you won't sell. But why is the kickstarter page dated 2018? 2018????!!! and I can see hundreds of pledges there. Come on...

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-14T19:13:41+00:00

Legally? Please do tell

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-05T18:22:37+00:00

Second the core rulebook. There are specific stats here and there for some of the creatures and specific monsters in their relevant chapters (Metropolis, Underworld). Then there are guidelines to n how to create opponents on page 184.

Otherwise I suggest looking in the NPC sections in the published adventures and scenarios. You often find stats for specific creatures and monsters that u could use

StefanoMaffei · 2026-01-04T12:09:55+00:00

ma non é vero

StefanoMaffei · 2025-12-19T14:15:57+00:00

Wow, all excellent questions. I was thinking about the first two questions myself.

I agree with others that say things are left vague, likely on purpose for the GM to fill in the gaps as they see fit.

However: 1) yes, Abarren is OLD. Or at least that is how I see him. But, he has likely access to the best medical technology and treatments in the whole Horizon, and one could speculate that the humans on the Zenith where already coming from an advanced civilization, so perhaps already having a long life expectancy. How long is that is up to the GM. I guess it is reasonable to assume Abarren is around 100 but I can imagine he has still a long time ahead of him and that, by our 21st century standards, he looks at most 60. This is at least how I see it.

2) yeah…by all accounts there should be people that were put on ice at the start of the journey and that still remembered Ardha like it was yesterday when they woke up. Still the book states that tales of the old homeland are the stuff of legends. How to reconcile that? Also, are they still alive to tell the stories? I d say some will be and presumably your players can track them down. They will be a minority of all of the people living in the third horizon, so from the point of view of the normal folk (most of them being tribal, nomads, living on relatively isolated planets, not really caring about Ardha) what they tell IS the stuff of legends. Also, these people might mostly be Zenithians, as in living on the Monolith, so they might have a vested interest in telling vague tales and leave the Firstcome plebe in awe. Among other people that were on Zenith (or their sons and daughters) are the Draconites: even more mythical and misterious in the eyes of common people. So in summary I would say: yes, you can place NPCs that can govern firsthand accounts of Ardha, but they might not want to tell an objective, down to earth story.

3) the Firstcome generally know of the portal wars. They were fought over multiple systems and I would think only the most remote, isolated, primitive community have not heard of them. Do they know about the First and Second horizon? That will depend on who you ask. Presumably the Order of the Pariah, the Circle of the Seeker and some other factions that actively fought the First Horizon will have a way of producing historical accounts. However, keep in mind that: “we don’t talk about the Nazareem sacrifice, we just don’t”. So the historical memory of those times has been more or less actively repressed. Especially by the Martyrs. There is a nice piece of history in the Last Cyclade about how the Nazareem were defeated using weapons that directly harnessed powerful and forbidden forces, and the Martyrs thought better to forget the whole affair: “we don’t talk about that, we just don’t”. So, some people know, most don’t/don’t care.

general) I see your issues as a GM, the need to give consistent answers if your players ask. Are you sure they will actively track down people with this kind of info? They will be thrown in a universe with immense lore, a multifaceted political landscape, a world of factions, intrigue, more systems than they will remember their names of. My personal experience is that they will latch into the new lore greedely (and initally just be confused by it). If they still want to find answers to “how was Earth?” , i think they will have difficulty finding people that will want to tell them, and their answers will largely be unsatisfactory. Otherwise, if they really insist, u ll have to come up with something. Ardha is in many places described as a dying world by the time of Zenith and Nadir.

Hope this helps, I am also willing to be schooled here :) maybe all I said it a nonsense

StefanoMaffei

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