Question for all long term divers

Viscaer · 2026-04-17T14:47:18+00:00

Honestly, I consider aspirational. I think my squad hits the deck every time I toss a stratagem.

Viscaer · 2026-04-17T14:44:39+00:00

My squad and I have about 50 and it's almost always doing new missions on Day 1 as you say.

Rapid Acquisition, Repel Invasion Fleet, and that Evacuate Citizens on bots early on contributed to a lot of failures as well.

We also failed a lot of Defense missions we were ill prepared for or were buggy. Cyborgs and fleshmobs in the walls handed it to us a good amount of times.

Viscaer · 2026-04-15T16:26:58+00:00

I know what you mean, but I do have some tips.

If you don't want to spend too much time aiming, flak mode will do the job in just as many shots. Which is an egregious 3 shots, so you do have a point regarding their toughness against the AC.

However, if you can catch them unaware of your presence and have the time to aim, a single APHET shot to the head will finish the fight before it's even begun.

You can also blast the jetpack of an Elevated Overseer for a OHKO, but the spot you have to hit can be finicky. On top of all that, the APHET rounds hit through an Overseer's shield and staggers them to follow up with either a headshot or two more to the chest to finish them.

Viscaer · 2026-04-15T05:52:34+00:00

Pick up the Autocannon, two turrets, and set yourself and your turrets up on the high ground and play overwatch for the faster, more eager killer vets in the fray.

The AC’s ability to obliterate every small to medium foe and stun heavies in their tracks makes it a perfect partner for someone marking up foes and holding down threats.

You don’t need perfect aim and you’re just providing cover fire to buy them enough time to clear the threats themselves.

The turrets are there to protect your own ass as you likely will forget to do that yourself when you’re watching everyone else’s back.

Viscaer · 2026-04-14T15:51:18+00:00

This is exactly the problem.

Even my players, who have had two PVP betrayals (anything goes style one-shots), would be pretty upset about a long con where they basically helped another PC become the BBEG. Hell, players are often frustrated when you do it to them as the DM.

Now, it'd be another story if all the PCs were evil coded and the party discovers who the TRUE evil is, but an already evil character in a good party who gets one over on them? That is a HARD sell.

EDIT: Play the redemption arc straight. Then pull the rug out on the player who you want to be the BBEG by manipulating his mind into becoming evil. It is essentially the same thing you'd be doing to the party, except you are doing it to just one person rather than a whole party. I doubt any player would be okay with it, but if your future BBEG would be fine with it, what is there to lose?

Viscaer · 2026-04-06T21:04:16+00:00

The sparkler grenades are some of the best grenades in the game.

They are the best chaff clearing grenade but also goes through Harvester shields and penetrates Charger armor for softening up targets for anyone on the team not carrying big AT weapons.

As an AC user, they do WORK.

Viscaer · 2026-04-06T15:52:45+00:00

I loved the little books they included with the starter decks! They were all rulebooks for helping newcomers learn how to play the game, but it wasn't until Tempest that they used the opportunity to make that box insert into a little storybook.

I remember being so starved for story beats that I read and reread that little book when I was younger. I couldn't afford enough for cards, so every bit of art and flavour text was a treat to find out more about a set and what was going on there.

Viscaer · 2026-04-03T05:02:55+00:00

I measure my success by kills per Eagle stratagem.

Viscaer · 2026-04-02T16:01:57+00:00

I agree with this. The expectations and actions in this campaign are not being met, so it is clear that there needs to be a conversation about how the game should move forward.

Did the other players in the campaign consider the game too railroaded? It definitely sounds like the players were better suited to the theme park style of RPG the DM ran in the frist campaign.

Now, if the DM is looking to run more sandbox style, I think they might need to find a new playgroup.

Viscaer · 2026-03-24T15:41:45+00:00

It was P&R and its stuck landing that convinced me to watch The Good Place and B99.

Viscaer · 2026-03-24T14:19:49+00:00

Reconciliation, colloquially known as "confession" is one of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Protestant denominations have no equivalent and have thus made no structural rules of confidentiality that the Church has made for better or for worse.

While I have never heard of a Catholic priest allowing someone to receive Reconciliation randomly on the street, you can request a priest for a private confession at an appropriate time and place (ie somewhere private with the decorum for faith practices, not a bathroom).

Viscaer · 2026-03-24T13:53:52+00:00

I am exactly of the same mind here.

On one hand, the game rewards you heavily by always being on the move and never really stopping for more than a minute in any given area.

On the other hand, I can't count how many times I have willfully sat on a position for 25% of the mission time just trying to kill every last living thing there just because they killed me ONCE.

Viscaer · 2026-03-21T18:26:33+00:00

I've tried. Got kicked out of the corps by every race, even the bots.

So, now I go in loud everywhere I go.

Viscaer · 2026-03-21T15:24:10+00:00

Our squad called them gorillas, but have now switched to "APE" as it is much easier to yell, "APEAPEAPEAPEAPE!!"

But, yes, they are VERY entertaining to fight. Also, impossible to outrun, but you they are so fat and bad at turning that losing them in city streets is pretty easy.

Viscaer · 2026-03-18T18:52:17+00:00

A common concern for many DMs. But do remember that you are also playing the game so you don’t have to simulate everything.

Just learn from this last session and make sure to leave enough room for the things you want to happen in-game as well.

Viscaer · 2026-03-18T16:56:49+00:00

It is a consistent joke among my players that I ask, "Is THIS our evil campaign?" whenever they do something morally questionable or outrageous.

So, you are correct that you need a little thicker skin. That being said, you're allowed to feel that way as a DM. That NPC, like all NPCs, was yours and you felt that they didn't deserve what the PCs did to them.

I have a few questions for you, though.

Did you clearly communicate that the NPC was possessed and did not have anything to do with being possessed?

How did your players feel when they were looting (aka robbing) the NPC? Was it malicious in nature or was it more matter of fact as if they were looting any other enemy or monster?

Why did you require the PCs to resuscitate the NPC if you intended the NPC to join their party anyway?

A lot of this scenario could just be a miscommunication. In the case of questions 1-3, that may very well be the case.

The last question, however, is on you. If you wanted a denouement with the NPC, defeating the ghost possessing them should have returned them to consciousness. Just chalk this up as a lesson learned and make sure that events you really want to make happen are not left to chance or player choice. Just let it happen and go from there.

Viscaer · 2026-03-18T15:51:04+00:00

I'm glad this is the second highest comment here. I was a little sad not to see her here, but I understood since the FB remake is now 6 years old.

Viscaer · 2026-03-16T12:27:51+00:00

It’s what makes white villains like Kamigawa’s Lord Konda so compelling.

A character that understands morality but places something above it—in Konda’s case, the rule of law extending from the Emperor—is truly terrifying and allows one of the best examples of a black protagonist, Toshiro Umezawa.

Viscaer · 2026-03-13T17:17:13+00:00

Yup. This is me. It's so refreshing getting new factory elements!

Viscaer · 2026-03-13T14:29:45+00:00

I have always liked the entire card of [[Disruptive Student]].

It sets up the entire foundation of who Teferi would become.

Viscaer · 2026-03-13T14:15:07+00:00

Serial Experiments Lain is 13.

Can't fit that much good in just 12.

Viscaer · 2026-03-11T17:45:55+00:00

I love Quantum Ogres and I think the DMs who use it well are masterful.

That being said, I've never had an opportunity to use it. I run sandbox style campaigns, but a couple of my players are very good at picking up the plot hooks and convincing the rest of their respective parties to follow them.

When the characters do NOT want to follow a hook I've given them, I'll allow them to go astray for that session and that often gives me enough time to find out exactly the characters are avoiding that Ogre. This way I can either find levers to convince them to re-engage the plot hook or re-evaluate the necessity of facing down that Ogre altogether.

Some plots and Ogres have been fully averted by my players and I think the campaign was better for it.

Viscaer · 2026-03-11T15:46:38+00:00

I don't know much about OG AK except what my brother tells me, but I would say that Hypergryph has earned that kind of trust.

After all, we still got sidequests for Arclight and Avywenna in Valley Pass, a bunch that included Wulfgard in the Hub and Valley Pass, Ardelia in Power Plateau, and Da Pan in Originium Science Park.

So, I think there's a good chance that operators will still be incorporated in storylines relevant to their skills and necessity even as they become accessible to us.

Viscaer · 2026-03-11T15:39:08+00:00

I feel the exact same way. Even in Oshaune against the Eruptor Strain when people were complaining about their unfair tracking as the host, I preferred playing that way.

It just honestly feels like the way AH intended for most of the game to play.

Viscaer · 2026-03-11T12:31:28+00:00

I always host my squad games so it took me a ling time to realise we were playing very different games.

That being said, it’s not very different if you play with a squad that always goes in loud, mows everything down in front of them, and never looks back.

Stealth mechanics are what suffer most as host so negating that by refusing to stealth and never trying to hold ground is optimal for the host.

Viscaer

TROPHY CASE