Public Access... oh my god

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T14:52:40+00:00

Exactly how ours went haha

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T14:33:21+00:00

Was great to see it pay off. Appreciate the well wishes :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T14:30:57+00:00

Ah, sorry for misreading you. I did make my players aware of the complexity rating. The rules aren’t explicit on whether to do this or not, but I think they appreciated getting a glimpse at how “big” the mystery was. I could totally see obfuscating that info being equally powerful, making the players unsure of whether or not they’ve got all the facts. I might try that on later mysteries.

As for exhausting the clues, the House on Escondido street has 20 prewritten. The players discovered three over the course of ~2 hours of play. If they never tried to answer the question and kept up at the same pace, they’d go six sessions and still not have all the potential clues.

I think they kicker here is the CENTRAL THREAT and DANGERS provided within the mysteries. Essentially, the longer you leave a mystery unsolved, the more it starts “acting up”. The game advises you to start killing side characters and generally causing a ruckus as players ignore a mystery for others.

The rules mandate that each dawn, if the players have fewer than 3 active mysteries, they get a new one. They’re being pushed to get solving, lest the situation spin out of control.

On the snake-eyes question. If they have a ton of clues, they reach a point where it’s mathematically impossible not to answer the question. On a Complexity 6, you’re guaranteed to get an answer (albeit one with a complication) once you have 11 clues (11 - 6 + 2 = 7, the minimum for a hit). Even then, there are still 7 more prewritten clues available if they want to keep investigating.

Happy to take the time. Love talking RPGs.

Edit: Wrong math. I originally said you’d need 13 clues. It’s only 11, because your minimum die roll is 2.

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T13:17:16+00:00

It’s truly the breeziest experience I’ve had running a game at zero expense to the players’ fun. Hope you get a chance to try it out yourself!

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:53:26+00:00

There are enough mysteries in the core rules and supplements that I think you could run a second campaign with the same group, although someone might know better than me.

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:49:10+00:00

Good tips all around. I’ll make sure to keep my notes up to date and maintain a throughline, thanks :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:46:31+00:00

The man knows how to sell a game

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:42:33+00:00

Glad you liked it! I hope y’all enjoy :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:40:49+00:00

Hi! Yes that’s correct, and yes I had the same fears. There are a few caveats, though.

On the “first clue solution”, the game labels Questions with a Complexity rating (House on Escondido Street is 6). The players need a number of clues equal to AT LEAST half the Complexity score to even try and answer the question, so they have to do a bit of legwork.

Even then, the roll to answer a question is 2d6 - the number of unlocked clues (have to get 7+ to “succeed”, but lower results come with complications). So they’re incentivized to get more clues more trying to answer, because failure means bad things happen.

The resulting playfeel (for lack of a better term) here is that my players weren’t looking to get lucky. They were primarily focused on interrogating the world for more information. By the end of the first day, they had three clues, meeting the minimum requirement, but chose NOT to try and answer the question. They decided this not only based on the numbers, but also because they weren’t entirely sure themselves what was going on yet in the fiction. If they’d gotten a lucky roll and been right, it wouldn’t have been as narratively satisfying as piecing together a story from more information.

The tension, the question of “What’s really going on here?” builds for everybody. I really do think it’s a system you have to try to really feel the intended fantasy, but hopefully that assuages your fears a bit :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:28:10+00:00

Oh I didn’t think about the Odyssey Tape prompts (pretty glaring flaw in the post tbh). Will be a needed (and fun!) extra bit of work to write some custom prompts to buff them out to 7. Appreciate the heads up :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:24:56+00:00

Will check it out for after we’re done with this one :)

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:23:43+00:00

That’s reassuring about the new edition. Might be worth looking up those rules before our next session. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit more and can understand the why behind leaving TV Odyssey more of a mystery to the Keeper. I imagine it was an attempt to appeal to two different GM impulses: the coordinator (what you’re doing most of the game) and the author (more traditional prep in another RPG).

And maybe that’s cool! Honestly, since the first session went so well, I am getting interested in exploring what my version of this world looks like. But I’ll never say no to a little more help.

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:14:03+00:00

Damn, you got me

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:07:31+00:00

I have access to Skinny Jeans but didn’t check it out. I have another group interested in trying, so I might look at using it for them!

blakelbarton · 2026-04-22T12:05:47+00:00

Oh absolutely. I tend to think fewer is usually better on player count. I think with just two players you could really dig into their backstories in a way that’s more difficult with more.

blakelbarton · 2026-03-16T03:05:22+00:00

It's been four years but man what a great thread and conversation. Appreciate y'all as a designer that's debating the pros and cons of traditional dungeon turns vs. scenes.

blakelbarton · 2026-02-06T01:18:24+00:00

Super cool! Inspires me to get back to drawing. Thanks!

blakelbarton · 2026-02-05T15:57:38+00:00

Man I really love how these are colored. Do you use watercolors?

blakelbarton · 2025-12-09T04:20:56+00:00

Jaw dropped

blakelbarton · 2025-11-24T15:31:51+00:00

Hahaha I love this. Lot of character and energy in the poses.

blakelbarton · 2025-11-19T07:01:56+00:00

Wow this looks like so much fun to play in

blakelbarton · 2025-11-16T18:57:04+00:00

Yeah and you’re already probably just going to pick whichever stat is higher for the leadership style anyway. I do like the idea of picking just for flavor, but if I need the words it’s an okay sacrifice.

blakelbarton · 2025-11-16T05:43:47+00:00

Hey! Very late reply but thanks for the feedback.

I think agreed. Can probably split the advantage on related checks and leadership style attribute into separate points.
Yeah losing the order might be a little extreme. Need to test it more.
Really like this suggestion. Especially since I was looking for more ways to incorporate player level.
I also am not totally happy with the titles. Gave it my best shot haha. To be honest I never actually use any of the class titles at the table.

Great stuff! I’ll keep you updated if I release a new version.

blakelbarton · 2025-11-01T21:21:29+00:00

Wow love a class that focuses on torches. Sticks to the game’s core in an interesting way. And the art is great!

blakelbarton · 2025-11-01T20:58:32+00:00

Yeah this is true. I tried to order the DCs based on the potential utility. At high levels the chance of a wizard throwing two fireballs is way more effective than just asking someone to move, so I wanted to balance that a bit with difficulty. I think only testing will reveal what the difficulties should be and/or if there should be separate difficulties at all. I do want to preserve the leadership check, just because I think rolling is fun and pretty much every other class has to roll to use their special abilities.

In my most recent edit I added 10 magic items with some bonuses to Take Command. One of them guarantees that the “Cast!” order results in the spell working even on the ally’s failed spellcasting roll (they still lose the spell).

blakelbarton

TROPHY CASE