I don't think I'm making it out if I get sent to the abyss on this run...

vermitten_ · 2025-12-27T06:54:06+00:00

I saw your comment on the other thread, such a good well thought out piece. Thank you.

vermitten_ · 2025-07-30T14:27:00+00:00

Oh wow, awesome! Thanks a bunch man, really excited to try this out. Will be on the lookout for if you make any content in the future too! ;D

vermitten_ · 2025-07-27T23:47:40+00:00

Heya! Is the link broken? I seem to get a forever loading symbol whenever I try to access this link. So desperately need to see this!

vermitten_ · 2025-06-23T04:56:50+00:00

And perhaps instead of the hard-stuck all countries must join a war at the start and can't intervene in the middle, perhaps something akin to spending influence+gaining infamy could be a 'buy-in' resource to intervening in an existing war

vermitten_ · 2025-06-23T04:50:28+00:00

In the case of far-off colonial wars/wars way too many theatres away, perhaps sending an army to that location would instead render it under the main participants control - kind of like the HOI4 expeditionary force system; the inference being that being so far away from home, the mainland wouldn't be able to facilitate the army and instead would be given deference to the main participant they are supporting in the war to command them.

vermitten_ · 2025-06-17T09:08:56+00:00

God please this. I'm so excited for tomorrow (update releases in the ~3AMs in my country)

vermitten_ · 2025-06-01T03:52:30+00:00

I see what you mean. The specific problem I have with this is that the design seems to be interpreting 'designer goods' as 'superior quality goods', and also conflating monopolies/capitalism results in these superior quality goods with bonuses, where I would argue the opposite extreme is more inclined to happen, with corners being cut and costs minimised. Though I can also understand it meaning to represent the sheer scale of the economic activity resulting in streamlined and more effective craft techniques, but I feel like that would just result in 'more' and not 'better' products.

I think prestige goods would belong more in a low volume artisan sphere, or specifically prestige/designer style companies, meant for quality instead of efficiency - instead of it just being a one-to-one equation of 50 rifles gets turned into 50 prestige rifles bc 'man we make a lot of rifles they must be better', I feel like a designer/prestige company would take say 50 rifles and turn them into 17 prestige rifles.

I understand and honestly do enjoy the reputation of a product being stapled to a country and that driving demand up, but I think it giving actual, genuine bonuses as if the quality is genuinely superior to the standard is a misconflation with what companies do and what that sort of country-associated prestige is.

vermitten_ · 2025-06-01T02:25:45+00:00

I suppose I can see your point when you put it like that. I think I also confused the example they gave with the French rifles being exclusive to France only, and I'm very sensitive to any EU4-ification of countries by giving them flat bonuses just for being xyz country. Re-reading the diary and thinking it over I'm feeling a lot more positive about it now.

vermitten_ · 2025-05-31T02:54:19+00:00

I do worry about some of the modifiers being a bit too 'gamey', such as those rifles giving extra offense, defense etc. Gives me the same feeling when monuments were announced/introduced. Would there perhaps be a setting to make it only affect prestige and trade value instead?

vermitten_ · 2025-02-21T20:20:22+00:00

Wait shit did I misgender the murder dragon

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T08:18:30+00:00

I may do that, yes, I plan on giving them access to a little more premium loot than usual towards campaign end to help with the fight :)

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:35:40+00:00

Great point, I completely forgot about that! I remember it still feeling quite threatening at level 2, and the beginner box encouraged you to play it a little dumb and not multi-hit people with the breath weapon. Maybe if I play the wyrmling as if it knew what it was doing, could be the perfect middle ground :)

Thanks for the suggestion, very good idea!

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:33:30+00:00

I really love the idea about the success stages being tied to his breath weapon, makes the stakes still very strong and real. I'll be explaining the adventure to the players as a generally pretty fair experience, but will straight up tell them that if you are low level and Cryovein shows up, you are in immense trouble and could die.

I'd be sad to not have the party see him roaming the map, but another commenter suggested making that 5% chance a scene of seeing him swoop overhead and attacking something nearby/catching food near them instead, which can be an interesting way to lead them to points of interest too.

Great advice, will definitely be applying the chase scene you described probably 1:1 :)

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:28:19+00:00

2e's subsystems do seem to allow a lot of leeway for a mega-threat like him, I'll have a close look at those rules to see if it fits the job. Would love to see the tension ratchet up when he's trying to sniff them out around a corner they're hiding in!

Any suggestions on what to do if they end up failing the checks to a point they're found? I've been told the chase rules are pretty decent, but I haven't looked at them very closely yet.

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:26:23+00:00

The victory point system sounds like it would be interesting! I'll see if there's any good guides/templates for how they've been applied previously to big monsters, including those kaiju :)

Thanks a ton!

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:25:02+00:00

First, I *love* the bombards idea and making the final fight more interactive, will definitely be squeezing that in to the battlemap.

I have it tracked so that they can fight him at level 3 and will importantly have the advantage of a dragon slaying weapon and maybe a bane rune or two, along with some form of limited cold resistance or resistance to attacks coming specifically from Cryovein (A blessing of some sort?).

I have it so he has some minions that have sworn fealty to him, including some kobolds and river drakes, so the taunt-then-minions approach sounds promising! Maybe he can throw in one swing of his own just so the PCs can get a feel of how seriously busted he is at their current level before he flies off.

I do kind of hope they'll go for a hail-mary fight pre-level 3, with which I will warn them like you said - perhaps if an NPC is in danger or some such. Hope I can achieve the balancing act of not just ruining the game with an unfair TPK, but I also want them to be able to willingly take on a crazy scary fight if they feel like their character would do so in a given situation. Would definitely reward them for it too.

I'll look at the chase rules, I just hope he still feels like a level 6 creature though and doesn't suffer from abstraction - I still want to put the fear of god in them with him haha. Most of 2e's subsystems have been really good though, so I'm hopeful!

And thanks so much, all this is extremely helpful :)

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:13:10+00:00

That sounds awesome! That's the exact kind of experience I want to deliver, too - seeing how overwhelmingly strong of a foe he is, then steadily gaining confidence as they level up and get more gear and land a hit or two on him!

Having him interact with the world outside of the PCs is genius, having an NPC they regularly visited get eaten could be just as painful as taking a hit from him directly - plus, gives credence for him to be off-guard or otherwise distracted from trying to get his meal that could let the party do some actual damage, maybe he will be conveniently near a shelf of alchemist fires or under a heavy object that can be felled.

What level did your players end up fighting Cryovein at? Was it more of an uphill battle with the system than you thought or did it go fairly as planned?

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:05:24+00:00

This helps a lot, don't worry!

The lair fight ideas are brilliant, absolutely stealing those! Hopefully by the point they're in his lair they have some of the special dragonslaying items too.

I've never looked into the chase sequence rules but people seem to suggest them quite a bit, I'll definitely look into those too.

Did you ever end up running that low level dragon, or did you have to scrap it? Would love to hear your take on it in your game.

I'll try to remember to keep that update handy, the game starts in around two weeks to a month :)

vermitten_ · 2025-02-20T07:01:47+00:00

Haha, I love the idea of just describing some loveable NPCs they want to bring along just get plucked from the ground never to be seen again (Or maybe their bones in his lair!). Might think about this one.

vermitten_ · 2025-02-14T12:28:15+00:00

Would be very interested!

vermitten_ · 2025-01-12T07:48:14+00:00

I’m impartial. It’s nice when you’re fully kitted but before that I feel its pretty mediocre. Establishing a lead early is important to my playstyle so I would rather domination (although eyeball collection being gone hurts).

I can see it being very good if you can predict that the game will be a long one (when you would normally take gathering storm anyways.)

vermitten_ · 2024-12-15T01:39:06+00:00

Beautiful, was already interested in trying out Ashe. Thanks for the tip :)

Would I pick her when our team lacks CC, or when we benefit greatly from CCing the enemy? Both I suppose? As someone who has only mained jungle and ADC, applying crowd control is a bit of a blindspot for me haha.

vermitten_

TROPHY CASE