#Solstice Rain mid-mission adjustments

25 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

granite gate
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Hey, need some kind of subjective advice.

I've been running Solstice Rain for a group of 3, with the commonly accepted sentiment of leaving off most npc optional systems, and it's been going pretty swell so far (they cleared the first mission fine, though one of them is melee only and got Both his weapons blown off before suffering a 1 on his third structure roll against the Rainmaker.) Our most recent session has seen most of the way through Clear The Air, but I very belatedly realized that I accidentally allowed that very same melee only character to one-shot the Demolisher in that mission— mainly because I was so impressed that he rolled precisely lethal damage on his superheavy, that I forgot about the Demolisher's melee resistance. I also forgot to use the Ace's reaction on one turn as well, was just kind of impressed they'd come up with a semi-cohesive team after LL1. So it's looking like this first fight of the mission is going to result with the party down all of like... 2 repair, maybe more if the grenades player uses Grease Monkey to replenish a bit after everything he burnt trying to kill the Mirage.

I don't want to ramp the difficulty up TOO much for them, especially knowing what kind of fights are waiting at the bottom end of the module, but I definitely feel like I should make some adjustments somewhere ahead. Just not sure what; do I let the Sniper in the next combat keep Moving Target, as oppressive as that may be for only 3 PCs? Give the Barricade more to do than be a big body blocker? Orbital Strike on the Scout? Or maybe go full send on the final combat and just give the Ultra Operator its optionals back?

bronze shoal
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I honestly wouldn't mind them being powerful all that much, sounds like they took a beating at the end of the first mission

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The game doesn't break

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I was not familiar with the sentiment of leaving off NPC optionals in SR

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I would have expected people to run NPCs as-written including optionals

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So, running all the rest of the combats as-written should be fine

outer glen
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You can probably get away with keeping more optionals on the next mission

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tbh

granite gate
bronze shoal
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Well, my suggestion is to run the adventure as-written for the rest of the mission

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If you want to bump difficulty

proud steeple
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But yeah I don’t know, they may still struggle because 3 PCs, anyway

bronze shoal
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I haven't run SR but I've only ever run Lancer for 3 PCs so I'm not scared of it :P

proud steeple
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I defer to your expertise!

bronze shoal
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You are probably more familiar with SR than I am

granite gate
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I'm honestly leaning towards just loading all the optionals back onto the last combat, but I don't want it to suddenly feel like a huge jump. I think some of the NPCs in Leviathan could stand to have more active turns, instead of just like... only letting the Sniper do anything significant every other turn, and keeping the Barricade to relying on recharge rolls until the players get in range.

bronze shoal
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You can always sandbag if you need to

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And your reinforcement strategy can impact difficulty quite a bit (making it easier or harder)

granite gate
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The long range characters are coming out of the current combat practically unscathed, so I was thinking I'd do the ol' hammer and anvil (especially with an Explosive Jet Pyro chasing their asses)

rain crow
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I think you shouldn’t worry about remembering all of the rules too much, when I do it I just try to think of a narrative reason for it after the fact.
I think that clear the air is kind of an easier combat, I hardly damaged anyone’s in that, though I have pretty good players and this is my first time GMing too.
Leviathan and wake the furies gets a bit more difficult though, with the sniper that can take a structure and a scout helping them. And then is the boss fight with Kiros’s massive laser and invisibility.

odd venture
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One thing to say is that the boss fight with 3 people plays way different than it does with 4 due to activations

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3 players initiative can end up looking like
Player A -> Hive -> Player B -> Pyro -> Player C -> Ultra Op -> Ultra Op

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Playing him smart it's possible to leverage it so he's always teleporting in and out and relying on his camouflage to be insanely hard to even target, let alone hit

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If you want to sandbag the fight it's better to have the ultra take his turn earlier in the order to at least leave him with a window of vulnerability.