Prototype Pattern Groups

[vagrant grotto]

Bloodhunt
System, 2 Heat (Self), Protocol
Characters in the Howler’s SENSORS (ignoring line of sight) that are in the DANGER ZONE or under half their maximum HP gain LOCK ON. Additionally, the Howler ignores INVISIBLE and HIDDEN on those characters until the start of its next turn.

[sudden cosmos]

My players did mention that lock on would be a cool thing for that ability to add

Seems less niche. I'd mess with it

[vagrant grotto]

Protocols are so fucking hard to make lol

[sudden cosmos]

Oh absolutely

Something something "the hardest things to design around are free"

[vagrant grotto]

it's a free action! but also, it has ordnance!

[sudden cosmos]

I suppose that makes it so it can't target an adjacent character???

[vagrant grotto]

the free action is the hardest part though, it's so much easier to just balance a Quick lol

[sudden cosmos]

An ordnance protocol is less silly than making a superheavy unique

[vagrant grotto]

I meant that mostly about how protocols work

right now I'm weighing Beast Uncaged and Feral Howl in my mind

I kinda question if I need multi-target scaling on Howl, since players are prone to splitting up

like, Sentinel implies it wants to be in the thick of things due to how Eye of Midnight grants more Overwatch, so I think Howler has similar implications in its current design with Ripper Claws????

something else I didn't consider: Drones contribute to that OS total

that's an interaction I'm not keen on

though it's solvable by saying "hostile mechs"

[vagrant grotto]

alright, I'm making it 5/7/9 overshield

changed the attack scaling on Claws to 2/4/6 no accuracy from 1/2/3 +1 acc

I'll say though, I'm considering changing the damage scaling on claws to something a little more aggressive

It's AP, and it has a way to trigger Overwatch besides someone walking away, but 4/5/6 feels a bit anemic

gonna leave it for now

[drifting parcel]

Lil friendly Vulture done for my party

I hope it has the looks/vibes you invisioned Valk cause I was stuck for a hot second on how to approacj it

[vagrant grotto]

Oh it’s dope

NPCs are generic after all, lots of room for interpretation. I like the big gun and the potential jet boosters on the shoulders

[drifting parcel]

Those are indeed jet boosters

I know I'm making my HA one a Gilgamesh

[vagrant grotto]

I have just realized something concerning regarding multiples

When was the last time someone fielded two Capacitors in the same fight

And did they think to have the Capacitors Power Surge each other

It’s probably fine

… but I wouldn’t mind feedback

[placid glacier]

If I get the chance to do a skirmish oneshot again I will keep it in mind

[steel apex]

With the added Lock On to Bloodhunt, this seems decent

My general pattern with melee strikers has been to give them +1 Accuracy baseline for their stuff because it means Impaired can influence it, but this guy isn't really a dedicated striker, so I think it's fine for it to be a little less accurate baseline

+2/4/6 isn't even bad tbh

[tame wharf]

i see why you removed teleport kidnapping Valk

a Wallflower fight is currently beating our ass because of it

[sudden cosmos]

with me feeling like I needed to force players into range of the howler, it kinda tracks

their instinct was to get to high ground, but because of longclaw, it was able to yoink a size 1 and bring at least one OS-giving bloodbag for it at all times

in normal circumstances, most people would probably try and keep their distance to not get caught in howl/claw threat at all

2/4/6 with no accuracy on claws feels like it'll be okay at a glance though

keep accuracy on bite though because that move is already freaky and I like how swingy that is when deadly gets into the mix

[south cypress]

Prototype Veteran Ghost did well, survived until round 3 because it had Feign Death. Full writeup tomorrow

[sudden cosmos]

Becuase I kinda want to void some warranties, 2x ultra fight with howler and ghost

It's just them. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

Or Regret and Penitence in my case

I've never done a double ultra fight before

[vagrant grotto]

Oh yeah absolutely, part of my rationale behind the change to claw accuracy was

1. Lock on from bloodhunt as Kai mentioned
2. Same attack bonus baseline as viral bite, except Viral Bite has “Accurate”

[vagrant grotto]

PERILOUS HOWL
Trait
Hostile characters affected by Feral Howl must make a Systems save. On a failure, on the target’s next turn, they must use their standard movement to move as far away from the Howler as possible. This is done before the target takes any other actions on their next turn (including Protocols).

Considering something

[silent flicker]

damn, no protocol

[tame wharf]

So they immediately eat an Overwatch?

[vagrant grotto]

Immediately at the start of their next turn yes

[viscid ingot]

This is powerful

[tame wharf]

The fact it goes off before Protocols is quite strong yeah

[viscid ingot]

Park this on a Crack Shot build and they will cry.

[vagrant grotto]

If you’re a crack shot next to a howler, you’ve got bigger problems

[sudden cosmos]

Idk of I'd take it, but if there's no OS/player scaling, then having a cuddle puddle with the howler won't feel as essential

[sudden cosmos]

With two gunners in my playtest, it happened quite a bit. They were not happy about this.

[silent flicker]

the problem is that its in front of a crackshot build which is no good

[vagrant grotto]

Anyway I’m not sure adding a Fleeing component is actually interesting

Even if it’s thematic

[tame wharf]

I'd agree

[muted blaze]

Are protocols allowed to go off after the movement or does this turn off protocols?

You may ignore the flee if you have the NEGATE FEAR keyword

[viscid ingot]

My suggestion?

Trait
Hostile characters affected by Feral Howl must make a Systems save. On a failure they must choose one of the effects;
- On the target’s next turn they must use their standard movement to move as far away from the Howler as possible. This is done before the target takes any other actions on their next turn (including Protocols).
- Or become Immobilized and attacks gain +3 Difficulty if they target anything other than the Howler But attacks against the Howler are made with +1 Accuracy.
```-

[umbral sluice]

trench crusade mentioned

[viscid ingot]

Something like that

[vagrant grotto]

Turns em off, and ordnance

Have a little Duat Gate 1

[muted blaze]

💀

Oof ouch owie

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah cower or run, makes sense

[silent flicker]

also gated behind a system save

[vagrant grotto]

Maybe this is the Lunar Splendor I’ve wanted

[viscid ingot]

Haul ass or Throw hands, Player's choice in the end how they wanna get screwed over.

:]

[silent flicker]

Imagine if the Melee player purposefully fail just to get that accuracy

Dog on Dog violence

[vagrant grotto]

Are you cool with me potentially using this?

[viscid ingot]

Suspiciously Assassin shaped bush nearby.

[viscid ingot]

Go ahead bro :]

Your lads gave me plenty of ideas for my lads. So is fair play really.

[vagrant grotto]

I’ll probably tweak it but this might replace Lunar Splendor’s current effect

[viscid ingot]

If it was just full on flight then it would be rather oppressive. But make it be a choice of what effect the player wants to suffer? All of a sudden it isn't as oppressive because the player must choose the lesser of two evils at the moment... or gamble of course.

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah no a dilemma is good

[viscid ingot]

Let's be real, they will always gamble.

[vagrant grotto]

Honestly thinking about like, if this should be Feral Howl instead

[viscid ingot]

Oh wow, that much of a change?

[vagrant grotto]

I don’t know

I went with a light touch at first

[muted blaze]

https://tenor.com/view/rowan-and-mya-mya-and-rowan-sowan-myaouchie-gif-8409382359635858815

[silent flicker]

Fucking love my dilemma

[viscid ingot]

Ah, the game I can never finish because I found three new mods that only work in after restarting.

[silent flicker]

Hive is great, wish there was a Hive 2, so i made one

[muted blaze]

"when caught in the howlers fight or flight, you must either fight meaning you can skirmish as a free action or flight granting you a fly speed"

[vagrant grotto]

Oy vey

[tame wharf]

Make it so they can Skirmish with any mount. Let the Howler get domed by a Sheavy

[silent flicker]

that just defeats the point of the dilemma

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah no

I’m not giving folks free attacks

[tame wharf]

Lol fair

[vagrant grotto]

I wouldn’t even give the accuracy, I’d just have the Crush Targeting difficulty

[drifting parcel]

It's a very big gamble for the Howler

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah, it wants to be sticky

If it misses the overwatch then that’s rough

[drifting parcel]

Maybe consider some reaction trait for it since it's a overwatch friends

Fiend*

[vagrant grotto]

I gotta think more about it

Ideally after a full night’s sleep

[drifting parcel]

Maybe getting a standard movement when someone is affected by feral howl moves or selecting a 'prey' as it were to follow

[viscid ingot]

Ok, hear me out.

JUMPSCARE
Trait
When a hostile character moves within Range 2 of the Howler, the Howler moves 2 spaces towards the triggering character and attacks with an Overwatch.```

[drifting parcel]

Too strong imo

It already has a good tar pit kit, this would make it too oppressive as a base npc. Maybe if you want to do a final boss style one

[vagrant grotto]

A Beast Uncaged (Ultra)
Trait
The Howler may use Feral Howl as a full action. If it does, it immediately clears all hostile effects that can be ended with a successful check or save (including Grapple).

Revised ultra trait

[vagrant grotto]

Lemme worry about the design

[silent flicker]

https://tenor.com/view/kpop-zb1-matthew-zb1-wolf-meme-seok-matthew-wolf-gif-1294548477430357568

[final violet]

I like the current version of Feral Howl because I can put it on something like a Mesmerist.

[vagrant grotto]

Gonna close the window for unsolicited design ideas for now

[ashen crown]

I was gonna say “hm, seems a little specific, conditions?” and then I remembered “wait Juggernaut and other Ultra Optionals exist lmao”

[vagrant grotto]

Riffs on my stuff is fine, but I’m not looking for new stuff from whole cloth

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah exactly, like, if I wanted it to be immune to stuff, ultra already has that

[final violet]

Watch the Hero As She Soars Across The Screen Into Your Heart! See How She is Perfect In Every Way!
HA Barbarossa augmented with DHIYED-derived memetic weaponry
Prism (Size: 3, “Minuano” Kinetic Saber, Mass Driver Sheathe, Double Vision, Scinitilating Gleam, Omniglass Barrier, Orbital Eye, Short-Cycle Lance)

[ashen crown]

Do you intend contact with…. That… to be survivable?

[final violet]

It's for the module I was talking about earlier.

[ashen crown]

Was not the question

[final violet]

Fair enough.

[vagrant grotto]

Aight so it’s using Prism’s projectors to cheat movement while sheathed

Its an interesting Prototype Ultra

[ashen crown]

Veteran Ultra

[vagrant grotto]

Dunno what orbital eye is

[final violet]

It's from the rebake.

[ashen crown]

Rebake Ultra ability- gives Lock On in AOE

[vagrant grotto]

It’s cross classing so I just called it “prototype” that’s all

Aight so it sets up some projectors and then holds down the fort with the sword

Or aggresses

[ashen crown]

If you’re trying to avoid giving more traits than templates allow then it would have to be a Prototype Veteran Ultra. Which, weirdly, it is fully within budget of the templates it has

[final violet]

Despite having Double Vision, it's not a veteran.

[ashen crown]

Never mind then

[vagrant grotto]

Aight well enjoy

Hope it plays well

[final violet]

Didn't want to give it that extra structure.

[vagrant grotto]

Posture Break worked pretty well on T1 Kensei over the weekend, happy that it was reasonable

The one Kensei I deployed definitely got some Charged hits off, but wasn’t as prioritized as the Howlers and Boomboxes, which is honestly fine, that means the defenders did their jobs and that Kensei actually wasn’t viewed as Public Enemy Number 1

[sudden cosmos]

I know I was too busy running my stubby gobbo legs across that map while getting chased by dogs and giant speakers

[south cypress]

Prototype Veteran Ghost playtest

LL3 Players:
-Agimaxxed Melee Vlad
-2x AssCan + Krakatoa Drake
-Very standard Sunzi 3
-Melee Calendula

Final combat in 3-combat mission
-Hybrid Sitrep 3CZ Recon -> Extraction; Extraction objectives were treated as characters and became interactible after PCs held a CZ for 2 consecutive rounds.
-Optional objective: Extract objectives from false CZs as well as the real one
-Outcome: PC victory w/ optional objectives complete, OpFor surrendered at the top of Round 6 as there were too few NPCs left to contest the final CZ, and the Sunzi used Art of War to instantly extract objectives to its Blink Anchor in the Extraction Zone.

OpFor:
-1 Veteran Pyro (Siege Armor, Jamming Pylon, Acrobat)
-1 Prototype Veteran Ghost (Maxwell’s Demon, Wavefunction Collapse, Feign Death, AUNTIE-Augmented Minigun)
-1 Support (Remote Cloud, Empowered Cloud)
-1 Hive (Electro-Nanite Cloud, Driving Swarm, H/K Nexus replaced with Seeker Cloud)
-1 Berserker (Superhot, Echo Edge)
-1 Hornet (Adapt/Evade/Disengage, Sap)

Reinforcements:
-2 Breachers (Follower Count, Superior Ram); Only one deployed
-1 Berserker (As Above); Didn’t deploy
-1 Hornet (As Above)
-1 Hive (As Above)

Ghost gameplan/what happened:
-Round 1 Ghost used Quantum Bond + Paradox State on the Pyro, Pyro moved aggressively against bottom left CZ, where two PCs had grouped together in easy Flamethrower range. Ghost used Maxwell’s Demon to give the Pyro a heat-free Flamethrower shot and Paradox State + Wavefunction Collapse to stop a FragSig and an Assault Cannon Barrage against the Pyro, respectively. Pyro ate a FragSig later in the round anyway, sharing effects with the Ghost via Quantum Bond.
-Round 2 Calendula popped core to prevent Vlad from getting structured by the Berserker, Ghost fired AUNTIE at 4 difficulty to structure the Intangible 11-evasion Vlad anyway. Hilarious. Drake used Siege Specialist 2 to separate the Pyro from the Ghost and break Quantum Bond, then one-rounded the Ghost with an AssCan Barrage. Novel Technology didn’t come up because the Drake high-rolled its attacks.
-Round 3 Ghost used Feign Death to return to the field, consumed a Restock Drone, and used Quantum Bond+Paradox State to partner with a Hornet on the top CZ. Drake baited Quantum Bond with a Krakatoa shot, then Sunzi threw a Warp Grenade to move the Hornet and end Quantum Bond, and finally the Vlad finished the Ghost using Pankrati to negate Novel Technology’s difficulty.
Sidenote: if a Ghost Quantum Bonds a flying ally, should the Ghost get to fly? I played assuming the answer would be yes

PC Ghost opinions:
-Drake player liked it and especially liked that Siege Spec. 2 could directly counter Quantum Bond, felt that its defensive actions were properly impactful without feeling oppressive.
-Calendula player disliked Paradox State’s lack of counterplay, drew comparisons to other defensive tech like Resistance reactions and Priest’s Sanctuary that have workarounds
-Sunzi player felt that Paradox State and Wavefunction Collapse felt like “gotchas”

My opinions:
-I really like this thing! I somewhat agree with the players that Paradox State could use counterplay, since in its current state it feels like a straight Quick Action trade unless a PC has a hostile protocol like Type-3 Shield, and at one point it became a QA - Full Action trade when it negated a Barrage.
-I kind of wish I had used Ghastly Vigor, but I don’t know when I would really have had the opportunity since it feels like Paradox State is very stiff competition for QAs and my PCs kept knocking the Ghost out of Quantum Bond. Phase Shift also didn’t really come up as the Ghost took its first turn quite early and never targeted a hostile tangible character with anything.
-Maxwell’s Demon is good and cool
-Wavefunction Collapse is neat, but having a Reaction that can stop a Barrage cold without apparent counterplay for 1 heat feels a bit bad; even if it doesn’t Recharge for the whole fight, it feels very impactful.
-Novel Technology felt fine, but my PCs would rather gamble on high d20 rolls than “waste” a QA on Scan to negate 1 difficulty. I could see a world where Novel Technology has a harsher penalty attached to it, but I was ultimately fine with it primarily acting as a Pankrati negater, and I didn’t really think it would be too impactful on an 8 evasion frame regardless.
-AUNTIE is wonderful. I didn’t use any of the free actions it gives since the Ghost was Quantum Bonded at the time, but being able to say “hey Intangible guy whose gameplan is to run and Stabilize! Eat lead!” was very fun.

[vagrant grotto]

Nice nice nice, thanks for the feedback! Ghost should be able to fly with a flying bond buddy yeah, that would be intended

So that Prototype Veteran Ghost ultimately ate 8 quick actions from the players, which is respectable in my books

With a combination of Paradox State usage and simply getting attacked instead of a buddy

Wavefunction Collapse stopped 2 quicks, and Feign Death let it take on another 3

Unless the Vlad barraged on the Pankrati

Then it was 9 quicks stopped and feign netted 4

[south cypress]

No it was a Skirmish

[vagrant grotto]

Noted on the “gotcha” feel of Wavefunction Collapse at least

Glad that AUNTIE felt good as a big fuckin gun

Also glad that Novel Tech was somewhat a deterrent but not oppressive

I could see a variant of Wavefunction Collapse with a “Hostile character starts their turn” trigger

So a GM can still reactively use it in response to a Striker taking their turn, but it’s still telegraphed

[south cypress]

Yeah that seems like a reasonable change to me

[vagrant grotto]

Also if I had a dollar every time Held Image popped Paradox State, I’d be able to buy a copy of PPG lol

[south cypress]

I could also potentially see a 1/round restriction on Paradox State to make Wavefunction Collapse more of an action compression tool than something to use in addition to QA Paradox State. Could also free up action economy for Bolsters, maybe

[vagrant grotto]

I considered this at one point too yeah

Would make Wavefunction Collapse a flexibility tool instead of a “bonus use” tool

Mm

I admit I am unsure of wanting to keep Wavefunction Collapse as a glorified “use Paradox State twice a round” tool

Buuuuuuut if I add a 1/round restriction to PS, that hampers Elites and Ultras

Would need some trigger wording like “A hostile character starts their turn, and the Ghost did not use Paradox State on its last turn.”

[muted blaze]

What is the intent behind wave function collapse?

[vagrant grotto]

On the fly defense mechanism

Remove some telegraphing from paradox state, make it have a surprise defense tool

[muted blaze]

So it can use it against what it wants as a reaction instead of the next thing as a QA and it stacks

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah, though now I’m debating the “stacking”, so to speak

[muted blaze]

May I throw some hats into the ring?

[vagrant grotto]

Sure

[muted blaze]

Remove recharge 5 from the reaction and make it like extrudite or the seeder optional where paradox state becomes recharge?

It's basically a "better barrel roll" even at that. It can't be baited, you can't easily turn off reactions and slow won't turn it off

[vagrant grotto]

I don’t like making Paradox State itself Recharge

[muted blaze]

At the cost of self heat

[vagrant grotto]

I’m starting to think that Split Timeline is actually good enough for this niche of “defensive no sell reaction”

I might actually replace Wavefunction with… A defensive reaction for when bond breaks?

[muted blaze]

Sounds neat

[vagrant grotto]

“Trigger: Bond breaks”
“Effect: Ghost moves its speed, and it is Intangible during this movement.”

Ejecting Exorcism
System, Recharge 5+, Reaction
Trigger: Quantum Bond ends while it is not the Ghost’s turn.
Effect: The Ghost moves up to its Speed. It is Intangible during this movement.

[muted blaze]

"go ahead, move" says the intangible calendula in threat

[vagrant grotto]

This might replace Wavefunction Collapse yeah

[muted blaze]

I have some concerns, but they mean nothing while I haven't seen it in play

[vagrant grotto]

I’d rather that extra Paradox State uptime be confined to the Ultra

[vagrant grotto]

Hit me with the cold read

[muted blaze]

So, I'm worried that via playing into the ghosts counter (move it off it's ally or move it's ally off it). In my experience with ghosts it becomes "cool, kill it now before it acts and becomes unkillable again"

Reliant on the map moving up to 6 spaces away means on some maps it's untargetable if it runs out of LOS through a wall

Which isn't the end of the world...

[vagrant grotto]

I might make it 1/scene or Limited 1 instead of recharge

Because my Overheating rules would cause drastically different results compared to core

[ashen crown]

I think the ghost having 6 speed is contributing to the power level. I had some concerns about the ghost having 6 speed last I used it. If this were implemented, I feel it’s pertinent to bring them up again

If the ghost had, say, 4 speed, I feel this trait could be 1/round and not be a concern

[vagrant grotto]

I’m not making Ghost 4 speed

Best you’ll get is 5

[ashen crown]

Not saying you should just thought I’d bring it up

5 speed would also be preferable to me, though the reaction would still be a bit spicy at that speed

Anyway funny Ghost Thought: Ghost (String Theory Marionette) + Mirage.

Not only for (in the rebake) String Theory Marionette duping Glitch Sensors, but also bonus hides.

Example:
Mirage Hides in Dataveil
PC searches and spots Mirage.
Ghost uses STM to reaction hide and go
-# ”No you didn’t!”

Also I just noticed that all elements of Ghost that give heat to their bonded target have been removed in its most recent iterations. In hindsight this actually makes a lot of sense- the Ghost overheating is as possible as it was in most all versions, and with a 6 Heat Cap, it’s gonna be the easier target to overheat most of the time

[vagrant grotto]

aight so right now v1.20 is looking like:

• Boombox speed + save target nerfs, flat self heat on Bass Drop, changing Power Chord into a nexus that ignores engagement
• Ghost replaces Wavefunction Collapse with Exorcism Ejection
• Howler Feral Howl gets tier-scaling OS instead of enemy-scaling, Bloodhunt applies Lock On, Lunar Splendor difficulty bumped to 2, A Beast Uncaged enhances Feral Howl into an escape tool
• Knight Save target nerf
• Napalm Save target nerf
• Drop Prone prevents standing up on the same turn
• Removed Covered Prone status for less confusion in Foundry

[vagrant grotto]

besides those changes, I'm leaving Feral Howl and Ripper Claws as-is to see what changes

one feature on the chopping block, however, is — you guessed it — Hatchet's Return to Sender

dunno what to replace it with yet, but it's been a niche-ass thorn in my side for a while

[ashen crown]

Nooooo

I feel like Niche should not be a limiting factor here considering Lead Astray, Melt, and other fun optionals are still alive and kicking

[vagrant grotto]

it is when it triggers like, once every 5 playtests

and once you know the Hatchet can have it, you just don't throw stuff in their general vicinity

it's the Deflect Arrows problem, but on an NPC

[ashen crown]

Okay that makes sense

Not really any way to save it I presume?

[vagrant grotto]

probably not

One thought I just had was "throw a weapon at the thing if it's centered in Throwing range" but again it has the issue of "Hatchet isn't going to have weapons when it's not its turn" and I refuse to make an optional that requires another optional

[ashen crown]

Isn’t that just Reckless Dive but to the left?

[vagrant grotto]

yesn't?

listen, they're both reactions that try to stop something from happening

I could maybe broaden the trigger to trigger off Ranged attacks, but at that point, what's the point really

[ashen crown]

And I feel like the “hatchet isn’t going to have weapons when it’s not its turn” is a bit deceptive.

Think of Moving Target from Sniper, including rebake. If it has the optional, Sometimes it might start and end its turn with its weapon loaded to take advantage of it

Not the best example but there are others I think

[vagrant grotto]

Hatchet's entire gameplan revolves around leaving thrown weapons on the ground for a turn

[ashen crown]

It’ll still do that tho, just sometimes not on its turn if it has this optional

[vagrant grotto]

what is "this optional"

Return to Sender?

[ashen crown]

This idea

[vagrant grotto]

I'm not gonna have the GM hedge their bets on whether someone shoots an arcing weapon within 5 spaces of the Hatchet within the next round

[ashen crown]

Fair enough

[vagrant grotto]

the hatchet wants to throw weapons, wait a round, then retrieve the weapon and repeat

honestly I may replace Return to Sender with a Limited 1 grenade

[ashen crown]

If you don’t mind me saying, just in general I’ve always liked the idea of the Hatchet having something Ricochet themed

Like Atlas’s Ricochet Knives

Feels right

[vagrant grotto]

aight, noted

[ashen crown]

A grenade would also be cool tho

[vagrant grotto]

I'll worry about the design, regardless

[ashen crown]

Ofc, it was just a theming thing that was on the brain

[dapper goblet]

I have a combat I have a free license to just get super fuckin weird with coming up

[ashen crown]

How do you think a fast Ultra Demolisher would fair in a Triangulate into Capture the Flag?

[vagrant grotto]

I mean, pretty well I think on the latter half

first half, it'll need the speed to be even close to relevant

[ashen crown]

Actually, a general question about Triangulate:

what are NPCs in Triangulate supposed to do if they can’t directly interact with the objective?

[vagrant grotto]

harangue the players

get in defensive position to prepare for the second phase

[ashen crown]

I’ll… try my best????

[vagrant grotto]

ah wrong word

just fuck around with em

"harass" that was the word, harass the players and impede them

[ashen crown]

For the first phase of the Sitrep, deploy all Prototypes and spam the ever living fuck out of Doomscroll

[placid glacier]

"As you can see, with the removal of these key workplace assets, you'd be hurting your future contract benefits in the long run and as such should let my team synergize a more equitable solution which would involve removing you from the premises"

"Is... is that all the cataphract is doing on its turn?"

"yeah pretty much, you're impaired from the corpo jargon transmitted into your cockpit though"

[visual nest]

Orator be like

[sudden cosmos]

My players liked seeing it

The ones that are awake rn, that is

[muted blaze]

Enemy scaling I think can work... Whether it's too much effort to make work or too many words is a different problem however

But alas twas chosen for just tier based scaling which will prevent a bombard problem

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah, I was hopeful since Maria did something similar, but I can’t be assed to do this at the moment

It was fine for Tier 2 and not for Tier 1, so I’m changing it to make it predictable

[muted blaze]

Scaling overshield based on PC parameters is very interesting

Was thinking for a prototype optional but OS works well on a specific class but is too swingy on any class

I just had a wacky prototype optional idea...

[umbral sluice]

Drop Prone prevents standing up on the same turn

https://tenor.com/view/man-free-man-freedom-free-chain-gif-2032133702890087634

[opaque crescent]

it may be a little short notice but judging interest for a playtest this weekend either:

• any time between <t:1773493200:F> and <t:1773514800:F>
• <t:1773601200:F>
  running for the usual ~3 hours + some time for feedback

my weekly game got cancelled so I have more prep time to allocate than I'd previously expected

[thin depot]

Are there any tokens people have made for these new classes? Im planning to use some in my upcoming Dustgrave campaign

[vagrant grotto]

I have some placeholders made from retrograde minis

[thin depot]

Oo im intrigued

[vagrant grotto]

doesn't include some later additions like Boombox and Howler, but yeah

lot of them are very basic tbh

just reusing some of the homebrew PC frames from Retrograde and calling them a standin for the NPC

[thin depot]

Understandable yea
I appreciate it and i love your work

[vagrant grotto]

thank you! hope it brings joy to your tables

[thin depot]

Its my first time GMing after having played several modules with friends for months and I saw these and knew immediately I had to bring it in to jumpscare them with new enemies LOL

[twin escarp]

I have silly little sprites cause I don't use retrograde but I don't think they're quite fitting for the average table

[thin depot]

Even if i possibly wouldnt use them im curious if youre willing to share :>

[vagrant grotto]

I'm down for Sunday

[umbral sluice]

okay since I don't see many other applicants just put me in on sunday

i can do it

[opaque crescent]

Oki, if we get people for it anyway

[south cypress]

I could do Sunday as well I think, if there's still room

[sudden cosmos]

peeling off the warranty sticker and cleaning the plastic with an IPA-soaked microfiber towel at this point

[vagrant grotto]

If you need a prerelease version of PPG v1.20 I can send it over

[sudden cosmos]

there's gonna be at least two versions of PPG before this fight happens, I reckon

I'm doing high-level NPC setup with the expectation that some edits will be happening before this fight happens in...

ten to twelve weeks from now?

I think it'll be very fun to see the TCB everest duo trying to navigate a world where Paradox State can just say "no thank you, actually" and sequence turns around that

[vagrant grotto]

@opaque crescent btw if we end up playing tomorrow, lemme know if you want me to kick a prerelease v1.20 lcp your way

[vagrant grotto]

FINAL NOTES
Combat encounters in Lancer are simply complicated, drawn out skill checks: Both serve to resolve conflicts with uncertain outcomes and consequences, both are shaped by player preparation and choices, and both can be bypassed when their outcome is obvious.

For example: If the PCs can use an ORBITAL DROP reserve (Lancer, p. 52) to skip to the end of a TRANSPORT (ESCAPE) sitrep, don’t even bother breaking out a battle map for the situation. Other conse-quences can be established — perhaps the GM informs the PCs that they will need to fight their way out through the enemies they skipped — but that flexibility is the primary benefit of these modular sitreps. Inform the players of the stakes, adapt to their choices, and start rolling dice only when the situation requires it.

Going to add this to the end of the Modular Sitreps section; thoughts?

[tame wharf]

I think it's a good footnote

[south cypress]

Are there Brigand or Boombox changes in that version? I'll be running those on Monday

[vagrant grotto]

yes to Boombox:

### Boombox

#### Boombox Stats

- Reduce Speed from 5 to 4.
- Reduce Save Target from 12/15/18 to 11/13/15.

#### Bass Drop

- Remove 1 heat per character affected, but add 2 Heat (Self) tag.
- Change allied effect to only let allies clear *one* of Immobilized, Slowed, or Prone.

#### Power Chord

- Change from Melee to CQB. Change effect so it ignores engagement.
- Add Smart tag.

[placid glacier]

What's the current testing list for 1.20?

[vagrant grotto]

#1254229800952922193 message

[placid glacier]

Ah right the tracker doc- I kinda forgot that got made my b ^^

Thank you tho valk

[vagrant grotto]

All good, if you want the v1.20 prerelease lemme know

[opaque crescent]

didn't get a fourth for signup so don't have stuff prepped, not looking at running tomorrow

sorry :(

[vagrant grotto]

I have a free day tomorrow! :joyous:

I appreciate you reaching out and starting something up, regardless

Today has been BUSY so this is actually a bit of a relief, silver linings and all that

[placid glacier]

I come bearing a testing report once again :)

[placid glacier]

Sitrep: Gauntlet
Player Mechs: Caliban, Blackbeard, Viceroy
(All LL6)

OPFOR (All T2)

Initial Deployment
1x Elite Veteran Howler (No Escape, Rip and Tear (Vet), Long Claw)
1x Veteran Mesmerist (Mountebank's, Narcissus Override, Self Repair)
1x Prototype Operator (Singularity Grenade, Lightning Rod)
1x Boombox (Spotlight, Bust a Move)
Reinforcements:
2x Cataphract (Electrified Lasso)
1x Boombox (Spotlight, Bust a Move) [Undeployed]

Result: Pyrrhic Victory (All enemy units killed, players did not make it to gauntlet zone)

Boombox (Tested with 1.20 stat and Basedrop Changes)
DM Side

• Save target reduction feels fine at T2 at least
• Flat 2 heat is nice for overhead and the few times it got Base Drop off I generally only had 2 characters within range anyway
• Unsure if Spotlight is supposed to act like Hive Drone instead, but I dropped it right on the Blackbeard
• Bust a Move was able to lock down the Blackbeard for a turn and a half, played into its "sandpit" npc nature well
  Player Side
• Scale of 1-5 for fairness, all players agreed it was at a 4, but they also rolled hot and were able to burst it down early
• Blackbeard player didn't have any particular negative feedback to Bust a Move

Howler
DM Side

• Double Activations on elite really allowed me to spam the shit out of Feral Howl, basically activated it every round, and didn't really get close to losing structure at any point, but to be fair none of the player mechs were particularly oriented towards tech attacks to exploit that weakness
• No Escape felt like it had more impact than Rip and Tear, but I'll get into that more on the player side. No Escape was able to consistently lock down two players, and knocked off a structure each off those two players
• Grapple wasn't able to be exploited as much as I wanted to, but that was kinda more from the party having a lot of knockback.
  Player Side
• Scale of 1-5 for how fair the Howler felt to fight, ranged from 3-5, with the lowest being from the Viceroy player that was basically CC locked for more than half the encounter.
• Was able to be properly delayed with slowed, and was very quickly nuked down at the start of the encounter, only survived as long as it did with the Mesmerist taking heat off it. Was then was able to survive almost the rest of the encounter of OS alone
• On that topic, the players thought OS gen did feel a bit much, but also could have been from Elite double activations letting me spam it so much with not much risk to reactor

[vagrant grotto]

Thanks for all this feedback! Noted on the OS generation on the Elite; I think it may be performing as intended but as always I’ll be keeping an eye on numbers

How did the damage for the ripper claws feel? And how did the players feel about the threat of Overwatch from the Howler? (Indifferent, respectful, disrespectful?)

Realized I had Howler changes too I could’ve kicked your way whoops

The changes probably weren’t going to affect you though, it changed attack scaling on the claws to 2/4/6 with no accuracy, and made the Howl overshield gain a flat 5/7/9

If you consistently netted 2 players in Howl, the Overshield would’ve been identical

[vagrant grotto]

Also @placid glacier how did the players feel about Boombox's Waveform Nexus? or any other pieces of its base kit

You ran Spotlight correctly, by the way

[vagrant grotto]

Fan of Knives
System, Recharge 5+, Quick Action
The Hatchet throws an array of knives in a Cone 5 area. Characters in the area must pass an AGILITY save or take 3/4/5 Kinetic Damage and have a knife deposited in a space adjacent to them. Knives may be retrieved as if they were THROWN weapons, but otherwise have no effect. On a successful save, the target takes half damage, and no knife is created.

replacement for Hatchet's Return to Sender

Please Evaluate And Critique Honestly

[vagrant grotto]

I hard committed to it anyway; Update to v1.20!

[vagrant grotto]

so yeah, Boombox and Howler are coming together great, and I'm excited to put some fresh tools in Ghost's and Hatchet's kits

[ashen crown]

Oh that seems cool

I do wonder if having the Knives be a status rather than a thing placed on the field would be easier to track

[vagrant grotto]

run it and lemme know how it goes

[ashen crown]

I do like it though, it really leans into Cleaving Retrieval in a fun way

How does it work with Reckless Dive though?

[vagrant grotto]

intent is that you can use the knives for Hatchet retrieval features

so you should be able to dive towards a knife

[ashen crown]

And how do you, uh, cope with the possibility of “knives endlessly propagating”? Considering they are only removed from the field when the hatchet Retrieves them

[vagrant grotto]

If I need to reword it I will

[ashen crown]

Right, but how do you Skirmish with the knife?

[vagrant grotto]

well, it's a "may"

[ashen crown]

Ah gotcha understood

[vagrant grotto]

Like, I could've made it a weapon I guess? but I wanted to give it another system for once

[ashen crown]

No I think it works a lot better as a system

[vagrant grotto]

we'll see!

[ashen crown]

I am hoping for the best from it however!

It also allows the hatchet to more easily do things like “free action retrieve weapon to trigger flip kick -> cleaving retrieval thanks to flip kick allowing it to engage a target”

Since it allows the hatchet to place multiple weapons on the field with one action

[ashen crown]

Also one counterpoint to this idea: it gives Pull the Snare + Cleaving Retrieval Knockback a true combo. Which signs to me I should run the hatchet with the feature as is before anything…. If I get the chance to at least which I don’t think I will ._.

[umbral sluice]

I'll give feedback but first: enjoying Slay the Spire 2 I see?

[vagrant grotto]

listen: Maybe lol

this was more of a subconscious thing here I think though, I had Xayah from league more in mind

[umbral sluice]

but overall, I think this is good

to me it feels like it fills a niche similar to something like Lance Shot or Micromissile Barrage

optional AoE thing on an otherwise single target class

while also keying nicely into it's main kit

and further playing with saves which is somewhat of a theme in the Hatchet

also, this one will actually trigger unlike poor return to sender 😭

[vagrant grotto]

yeah lol

But yeah, not a huge update otherwise, but Boombox + Howler are getting into good shape now

[placid glacier]

The players kinda had to respect the overwatch from the Howler because of No Escape, honestly the dropping of the Accuracy probably would have meant that it wouldn't be almost always preventing movement away from it which did feel a bit much on my end and lead to a bit of a frustration point with the Viceroy player (why she gave it a 3 on the 1-5 scale)

Damage wise, probably would have still knocked a structure each off each player with 4 vs 5 damage

[placid glacier]

Did not get to use waveform nexus because it got bursted down very quickly ^^

But beat drop was received pretty much the same as Bust a Move

[vagrant grotto]

Oh the damage didn’t change, just the accuracy

It’s 2/4/6 to hit instead of 1/2/3 + 1 acc now, damage is still 4/5/6

noted on the damage though, as I was also considering adjusting its damage profile, but not until I see how the accuracy change fares

[placid glacier]

Aah misread that

[vagrant grotto]

Glad that they felt they had to respect the Overwatch

[placid glacier]

I mean it almost lead to complete failure of the sitrep ^^

[vagrant grotto]

"Almost" is a wonderful word

[viscid ingot]

NGL, I kind of want the Boombox to have a Veteran or Rebake Ultra optional just called

][ DISCO FEVER ][
Probably have it be a heat building optional feature.

[vagrant grotto]

live your dreams, make your own

I'm content with what I have now

[viscid ingot]

I got my own heat building monsters. xD

I just had a weird idea for the Boombox

[placid glacier]

Honestly I need more NPCs to cook my players 👀

[viscid ingot]

Eh, my lads are just enhanced/remastered/reimagined versions of the Core Rule Book NPC Classes and Templates, with entirely new templates as well.

They are a bit more mechanically intense than the base NPCs and Templates.

You sure you wanna use 'em?
I still haven't finished their PDF yet.

[placid glacier]

aah fair dos fair dos

[final violet]

Are Formation members banned from gaining Overshield?

Because Formation Howlers would be interesting if their survivability wasn't so juiced for formations.

[muted blaze]

Grunts just have a poor relationship with overshield

Just because 2 overshield is a 200% durability increase

I'm not valk but it's probably something along the lines of "you made the formations, you have the overshield, exercise caution"

[viscid ingot]

I cast upon thee, Formations only get half the overshield.

[vagrant grotto]

No, have fun, and remember that self-targeting effects only affect the acting character in the formation

[dapper goblet]

Doing a full anomaly capstone fight for my roguelite thing in a metavault. Elevator clip Kensei is going to be fun.

And heliocide bastion with tweaked hp values and no self resist on interdiction because I’m a criminal

[tame wharf]

How do you add status effects/effects into Foundry from an LCP?

[vagrant grotto]

Import the LCP into Foundry

[tame wharf]

I do know how to do this

I realized I didn't say the right question

How do I add statuses to an LCP

[vagrant grotto]

"How do I add statuses to an LCP" is a question for #lcp-tech-support

[tame wharf]

Oh, duh

Thanks Valk

[muted blaze]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

RETURN TO SENDEEEEER

😭

I'm Cancelling Valk on Blue sky dot com

[umbral sluice]

I'm sorry Al... it had to go

the ultrakill parry...

[tame wharf]

gonna be running a slightly modified version of Seize today with zones you have to be fully within to interact with instead of objects

this may void my PPG warenty

[vagrant grotto]

Don’t have a bluesky, get dunked on

But also: if you have the old version you can just… keep it lol

[vagrant grotto]

Depends on how big the zones are

[tame wharf]

i dont expect there to be a size 3

[vagrant grotto]

Should be fine

[dapper goblet]

Ppg is an exercise in warranty voiding

[vagrant grotto]

It’ll be weird that there’s nothing to actually interact with, but whatever

[dapper goblet]

All rule books in ttrpgs are an opening bid

[muted blaze]

Do you have any social media I can cancel you on?

[tame wharf]

i was looking at the fact at they were objects and the thought occured to me of 'couldnt they just grab them and run'

[muted blaze]

Itch? Linked In?

[dapper goblet]

Discord

[muted blaze]

Sick

[vagrant grotto]

Unless you say they’re bolted to the floor, sure

[dapper goblet]

I forgot to mention this bastion (as it is an anomaly and I don’t have to tell em shit) is just called PLEASEDONTHURTME on foundry

[sand mulch]

wait did this become paid recently? i have no idea if i purchased it and its not showing on itch but i have 1.13

huh. suppose i didn't

[vagrant grotto]

Sec, check your PMs?

but yeah I went paid for PPG as of v1.18 as a kind of "early access" thing that's still in development but still has a lot of useful material

I'm still welcoming feedback, and have pinned a spreadsheet of stuff that still needs tested

[sand mulch]

you deserve it king

[vagrant grotto]

It's got the Howler and Boombox now and those are shaping up pretty nicely, but still need more playtesting

Ghost and Hatchet also got new replacement optionals, so looking forward to feedback on those too

[sand mulch]

[vagrant grotto]

and of course, happy to hear how the new modular sitreps are working (though those are also free on my blog)

[sand mulch]

i probably won't be using them for a while though 😔 my plan was to use them in wallflower act 2

though maybe i could set up a playtesting session, i do want to test the new shiny things (to me)

[frank blade]

i also have 1.13

[vagrant grotto]

The latest is currently v1.20 on itch

[sudden cosmos]

New version has cool things 1.13 doesn't have like

A dog

A giant speaker

Sitreps!

[frank blade]

very nice!

[vagrant grotto]

Devlogs for updates can be seen here: https://valkyrion.itch.io/prototype-pattern-groups/devlog

And if you want to try the sitreps, I put them on my blog here: https://trainlightning.com/modular-objectives/

[frank blade]

thanks!

[sand mulch]

can you pet the dog?

[south cypress]

Only if you are very brave

[sand mulch]

i'm not a coward

[sudden cosmos]

If you're a GM, you can very easily

[sand mulch]

just curious valk, do you want any testing for the house rules as well?

[vagrant grotto]

I’ll take whatever playtesting you’re willing to give

I know a few of the optional rules are a bit spicy and untested at the moment, and I haven’t tried them yet

The big ??? Right now are:

• No Split Moves
• Covered Prone
• Covering Guardian
• Drone Standard Move (I’ve allowed this but no one’s used it yet, lol)
• Retreat (I think this one is fine but also needs tested in a campaign environment)

[umbral sluice]

I think recaste tried to use drone standard move only to realise that Subwoofer was a deployable therefore it didnt even work

[viscid ingot]

The humble Goliath

PC: "Move your fatass off the objective!"

Goliath: Siege Armor + Heavy Frame intensifies.

[opaque crescent]

hadn't initially planned it, just mistkenly thought I could before getting slapped with the Deployable tag

[south cypress]

1.20 Boombox and Brigand Squad playtest

LL4 PCs:
-Agimaxxed Melee Vlad
-2x AssCan + Krakatoa Drake
-Drone Commander Sunzi
-Melee Minotaur
-Andromeda Sherman

First combat in a 4 combat mission
-Escort Sitrep, objective was treated as a character
-Optional objectives: Don't step on flower tiles, don't deal hp damage to the Brigand Squads, Scan every unique enemy
Outcome: PC victory w/ optional objectives complete in the middle of Round 4. Took 3 Structure and 2 Stress from the party collectively (2 structure from the Drake, 1 from the Vlad, 1 Stress from the Sherman and Vlad). Sherman and Sunzi popped Core.

OpFor:
1x Elite Veteran Demolisher (Concussion Missiles, Nail Gun, Limitless)
1x Commander Witch (Chain, Dark Cloud, Bolster Network)
2x Brigand Squad (Finishing Blow, Shredding Claws)
1x Breacher (Painmaker, Rapid Response)
1x Strider (CQB Training, Hustle)
1x Boombox (Jam Session, Bust a Move)

Reinforcements:
1x Commander Witch (As Above)
1x Breacher (As Above)
1x Strider (As Above)
1x Boombox (As Above)
1x Mirage (Illusory Subroutines, Multiplicity)

What happened:
Round 1 Turn 1 Sherman popped core and one-tapped the first Boombox with a 20 damage Solidcore shot, later Drake used Expanded Compartment to store the Objective. Demolisher overcharged too much with Limitless and underwent a reactor meltdown immediately (relevant).
Bottom of round 1 one of the Squads successfully used Shredding Claws on the Drake, exposing the objective in front of the mid-reactor meltdown Demolisher, then the other critically hit the Drake to knock her Prone with Dirty Fighting and deal bonus damage with Finishing Blow. PCs spent about 10 minutes strategizing at the top of Round 2 to ensure the Drake could safely get the objective out despite being Prone + AssCan Slowed inside the Demolisher's blast radius, with the Demolisher using a Nail Gun for Overwatch (they succeeded).
Second Boombox entered as a Reinforcement at the top of Round 2 and immediately attempted to use Jam Session to tag the Drake, Vlad, and Minotaur. All three succeeded at their Saves, then the Boombox successfully used Bust a Move on the Sherman to enable Squads to deal bonus damage with Finishing Blow, but the Sherman activated before the Squad could capitalize.
Round 2 the other Brigand Squad used Shredding Claws to Shred the Drake, allowing the Strider to ding her effectively with the Ranger Long Rifle without having to swap to Marksman Kit for paracausal damage. Credit to the Squad for assisting with that Structure.

Round 3 the second Boombox died unceremoniously to a Sherman Fuel Rod Gun Skirmish (not overwatch) and the Drake's Assault Cannon Barrage and the Squads failed to do anything relevant for the remainder of the sitrep, as they didn't recharge Shredding Claws or score any Crits and PCs didn't get knocked Prone again.
PCs didn't Scan the Brigands until after they had become irrelevant to the greater combat, so Flimsy Tricks got a lot of mileage, helping with a Dirty Fighting proc and a Shredding Claws success.

PC Opinions:

• Boombox is fragile

• Feels like much more of a controller than a support (skill issue on my part tbh. I played it much more as a Controller than as a Support for the one activation it got)

• Feels like it doesn't force combat to happen around it enough to make Bass Drop/Jam Session good; agree that Boombox

• PCs suggested giving it hover to let it more flexibly force combat to happen around it

• PCs liked how fast the Boombox was, felt that with the relatively small AoE of its effects it wouldn't be able to fulfill its role without good speed.

• Drake player: "Shredding Claws forces engagement with a part of the system that I don't tend to think about, so it's technically good, but it vexes me"

• Mino player dislikes that it allowed a theoretical Shredding Claws -> Strider 9 Paracausal Kinetic to the pilot sequence

• PCs like Flimsy Tricks, esp. that it costs 1 action to turn an ongoing annoyance into a bonus

My opinions:

• I think I played the Boombox very poorly, made a major blunder in which I didn't notice that Bass Drop to remove Immobilized from the Demolisher during its Reactor Meltdown could have won the sitrep on the spot for the OpFor by allowing the Demolisher to control where it blew up.
• Bust a Move is fun and inconveniences PCs in a surmountable but not trivial way.
• Jam Session is clearly very good; I just got unlucky with PCs rolling high on their saves. Feedback on that is probably a wash.
• Brigands feel great. Finishing Blow is a fair and useful bonus damage option alongside Dirty Fighting, and Flimsy Tricks feels engaging in the way it invites simple counterplay via PC action expenditure.

• Shredding Claws were the star of the show here, really. The ability to counter Expanded Compartment on an Escort map put the fear of god in my players in the best way possible, and after Round 2 the PCs ensured that they stayed too far away from the Squads to allow them to even attempt Shredding Claws again.

the map

[vagrant grotto]

Thank you for all the feedback! I have follow up questions I’ll ask in a bit but this is all helpful

[vagrant grotto]

• For clarity, the Speed 4 on Boombox felt good?
• On your comment about “forcing combat to happen around it”: it looks like something was cut off after “agree that Boombox”?
• Noted on potential for Boombox terrain ignorance as a trait (working title: “Electric Slide”)
• If you had a choice between Flimsy Tricks and the old Jury Rigged (aka reverse Veterancy), which do you prefer in general?
• Player fear of getting domed after Shredding Claws is valid; that said, glad it put the fear of RA in them
• also noting that the Boombox save target nerf would definitely be relevant this late in T1, but that may be how the cookie crumbles

[south cypress]

• I think something might have gone wrong with cloud syncing, because looking back on it the Boombox definitely had 5 speed and ST 12. The players liked its greater speed
• My bad, I was running on fumes and went to bed immediately after posting. That should say that the players agree that the Boombox could use some way of incentivizing PCs to close distance to it rather than necessitating that the Boombox choose between helping its allies and crippling the PCs.
  That said, I think that feedback was colored by the fact that I played the Boombox poorly
• Electric Slide is a wonderful name for that
• Flimsy Tricks is way better than the old Jury Rigged imo
• Yeah I rebutted that player's feedback with "okay but that would sort of be the Lancer equivalent to KOing a PF1e PC and then Coup-de-Grace'ing them"
• Yes but even at ST12 no one failed a save against the Boombox anyway by virtue of the Boomboxes only getting one turn between them and everyone high-rolling against Jam Session

Oh also according to my players the Boombox is now 'canonically' piloted by a cracked out DDR player

[vagrant grotto]

I do find it very funny that the standard player response to encountering something new is “kill it first” lol

Not many t1 NPCs survive a coreburn shot lol

And the second one at least ate 3 actions before dying

[south cypress]

Hilariously, the Sherman was a brand new player. Everything was new to him and he still popped core turn 1 and blew the Boombox up

[vagrant grotto]

The meltdown into shredding claws moment made my day though, that’s good shit and I’m glad it caused problems

Also very glad that flimsy tricks feels good and is preferable

Lots of trusting my gut lately

[south cypress]

Yeah that bit contributed to probably the most interesting board state I've ever seen. Had to write that up separately #gm-corner message

[vagrant grotto]

Absolutely baller

But yeah boombox went to speed 4 because of how they performed in another escort I ran, where they could just keep running down and proning folks

Glad to hear speed 5 felt good, I may revert if speed 4 feels meh

The higher mobility may be necessary to force fights without a tank buddy like the howler to lock down the opponent

[sudden cosmos]

Maybe scaling speed?

Early on, PCs only get 4/5 movement, so they can get perpetually run down by the angry speaker if it's got 5 speed

But when T2 hits, mobility investments (amongst other things that help with the saves) are more common, so it being able to run someone down at that point would be better to have

[vagrant grotto]

Scaling speed….

[sudden cosmos]

It's weird, but it also limits it from playing bouncer and dragging people into the pit or away from objectives

[vagrant grotto]

Scaling speed…. On the Kensei…. And Howler???

You’ve opened Pandora’s Box

[sudden cosmos]

The trouble may be resolved by the lower ST as far as Bass Drop goes

I did look at rebakes quick and scaling speed isn't that weird

4/5/5 might be the sweet spot? It would lag at the end of T1, but what NPC doesn't

Rebake sentinel is 4/4/5 but that's a bit apples/oranges

[vagrant grotto]

Huh. Rebake Support is 5/5/5 speed

[sudden cosmos]

That did confuse me for a second

I could have sworn it was 4

[vagrant grotto]

Me internally: “boombox should be faster than the Support”

[sudden cosmos]

But support is the only S2 that hits 5 at T1 (and T2 as well I think)

[vagrant grotto]

CRB is 4 yeah

Lotta mild speed scaling is at T3 only, in Kai’s rebake at least

The speedy NPCs have more aggressive speed scaling (Hornet specifically is the most aggressive)

Specter is the only 4/5/6 I could see

I’m just kinda breaking things down here

[sudden cosmos]

I was doing the same to make sure I wasn't saying something too silly

[vagrant grotto]

Big question too though is “how is boombox chasing different from a Support using Ram repeatedly”

Arguably support is even worse with Whitewash

That said: I did feel GM side that it was a bit too quick

So imma stick with 4 for now

But I’m open to reverting it

And/or adding scaling

[sudden cosmos]

Support also doesn't have offensive options that the prone enables easier hits on

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah, instead it just grapples you

[sudden cosmos]

As a striker brained pervert, I am very familiar with they ways of the grappling support

[vagrant grotto]

In any case, one good superheavy hit oneshots this thing

[sudden cosmos]

Also, to be fair to the support, ram is single target. Bass Drop isn't (but to be fair to the boombox, it does have a cost for going AoE with its prone)

Maybe it's because I got bullied by it, but I'd apply the Unauthorized Fucking Thing debuff on a boombox if I were ever in a low-level mobility based sitrep again.

[vagrant grotto]

Anyway, it’s speed 4 now, with ST 11/13/15

Hm. Network binding may be decent vs boombox

Regular-ass Eject Power Cores obviously shuts it off for a round

[muted blaze]

Scaling speed...

Actually wait yeah the hornet does that

[steel apex]

Probably the most "dramatic" example of speed scaling in the CRB is the Breacher which starts at 3 and goes up to 5, which is a pretty significant turnaround as opposed to the ones where it's just like "this guy starts out fast and then gets super fast"

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah exactly, CRB Breacher is such a weird flip

3/3/4 is fine for it, imo, but 3/4/5 is beyond the pale

[placid glacier]

yeah that's kinda what I've felt with my oneshot testing (granted I usually just. ball at LL6, maybe I'll do an LL3 Skirmish Oneshot sometime to do tier 1 testing...)

tangent aside, having used the boombox at both 4 and 5 speed, just a single drop in movement really made me feel quite a bit more limited in how I could place the boomboxes

[south cypress]

If a Vulture uses Magpie Subroutines to restore a Napalm's Firefly Drone, nothing stops the Napalm from deploying the second and having both simultaneously, right?

[dapper goblet]

This is probably in the faq but does kensei’s disarming parry reaction’s movement suffer from the difficult terrain penalty of it being sheathed?

I ran it as no but the timing/intent isn’t clear to me

[vagrant grotto]

Guess so, now

[vagrant grotto]

It should say it first moves its speed yeah?

[south cypress]

I must draw Loss in Firefly lines

[vagrant grotto]

This is what folks get for demanding it be Limited 1

[vagrant grotto]

Oh wait

It’s not affected because the sheathe ends on parry

[dapper goblet]

Yeah that’s what I thought

Ordering can just get funky in lancer

[vagrant grotto]

I tried to make it clear what happens when

Parry interrupts the attack, causing Unsheathe

Disarm happens after the attack resolves

[dapper goblet]

Could be operator error honestly, willing to concede the “I didn’t read very carefully” possibility

That is how I ran it (and logically, only moving 2 spaces feels kind of crap) so it’s probably fine

[vagrant grotto]

That and it’d be slowed otherwise

[dapper goblet]

…also a good point

“This ability doesn’t work at all” is a controversial npc design that I’m not sure I’m a fan of. /j

Oh I jump scared someone using a seeking weapon against an elevator clip kensei yesterday

[vagrant grotto]

I had to add a FAQ entry re: area of effect melees

Hell yeah

[dapper goblet]

I don’t have a ton of valuable feedback from that combat but it was hysterical

“Wait how did he do that”
“Game bugged man idk”

[vagrant grotto]

“It was fun” is valuable feedback haha

Legit saying “this worked as is” is super useful

[dapper goblet]

Fair enough!

I’ve now run the kensei in like 6 different forms and its current incarnation feels buttery smooth tbh

I wish it had a slightly higher heat cap but that’s probably actually a sign of it being balanced

[vagrant grotto]

I legit think Kensei has come a long way and is in a really good place right now

Only things I’m at all worried about on it are

• is the reversion to 5/7/9 Overshield too much
• should it perhaps have scaling speed

[dapper goblet]

Funnily I’ve never actually run it as a guy with a sword (it’s always been flavored as a revving thing (chainsaw/drill)) but the mechanics feel really great on both sides of the table I think.

[vagrant grotto]

But like, those are numbers issues, whereas the core gameplay loop Just Works™

And all its optionals seem functional and useful

Mortal Draw (Ultra) could always use more data but I think it’s probably good to go

Frankly glad the design came together so quickly compared to some of the other NPCs; Mesmerist and Zealot are my faves but they took a while to hammer into a pleasing shape

[dapper goblet]

All of these “this is more a threat than a thing that’s supposed to actually hit” things are a bit funky

Not bad, just hard to test

[ashen crown]

It’s me, I’m folks, and I approve this specific brand of BS because it makes support stronger

[ashen crown]

Elevator Clip Ace

[hushed anchor]

I feel like I shouldn't be putting more stuff in my campaign but putting in a final boss ultra howler is very very tempting.

[void wave]

also I'm sorry @vagrant grotto I just can't take the howler seriously

https://youtu.be/bjrmzg742OQ

I always think of this

[vagrant grotto]

Good!!

I haven’t played hi fi rush but Roquefort is 100% the vibe

[ashen crown]

How is this a reason to not take the Howler seriously?

[dapper goblet]

Oh it’s the howler and boombox duo combat

[vagrant grotto]

Unironically that thumbnail was on my mind as I designed Howler

Energy claws, metal werewolf, AWOOOOOO

Absolutely peak

[muted blaze]

I mean, the whole game is boombox duo combat

I think you play as the boombox

[dapper goblet]

I’ll boom your box buddy /j

(In retrospect that joke came out a lot dirtier than I meant it to)

[umbral sluice]

I'm not sure how to not read that as dirty lmao

[vagrant grotto]

I’m imagining boxing someone’s ears

“[punch] your [head]” etc etc

[minor crest]

https://tenor.com/view/discombobulate-sherlock-sherlock-holmes-gif-14388058

[vagrant grotto]

If I change Bass Drop to inflict Impaired instead of Prone, I want you all to imagine this gif whenever it’s used

[vagrant grotto]

“Disco-mbobulate”

[south cypress]

The test tracker document is fully up to date, right? I just realized that the map I'm cooking up for Monday is a perfect fit for a Prism

[vagrant grotto]

I believe so? Prism should be at least

[ashen crown]

No you play as a Berserker or Ronin or Kensei, Chai does not know how to play the guitar

[vagrant grotto]

This has never stopped anyone before

Anyway

Ultra Prism

Flashbang Projector

I’m lukewarm on it

[muted blaze]

Shit u right

[placid glacier]

When I ran a Howler this is one of the tracks I used as background music lol

[viscid ingot]

Ngl, I always liked Roquefort's design when I first saw it.

[vagrant grotto]

Potential 16th NPC idea:

TORMENT
manticore-style striker
When it takes damage, it deals damage to nearby targets

Vanguard/Assailant

[ashen crown]

On the one hand I wanna spritz you with the “no scope creep” spray bottle

On the other hand I really want this to be a thing

[minor crest]

The heat-overshield loop seems interesting

Self-sustain bruiser seems like a solid way to do the Manticore fantasy w/o putting on its resistances

[vagrant grotto]

Excruciating Transposition
System, Recharge 5+, Quick Tech, +1/+2/+3
The Torment makes a tech attack against a character in Sensors. On a hit, the target takes damage and is Impaired. Hit or miss, the Torment teleports to a space adjacent to the target.

[minor crest]

Might be interesting to have a self-damage system to play with Bedevil?

[muted blaze]

We love heat use counterplay

[vagrant grotto]

You’re right, add a self damage to the teleport

[muted blaze]

Guh

[vagrant grotto]

It’s Telefrag hours

[muted blaze]

Gnarly

[vagrant grotto]

Ooo where was this from haha

[viscid ingot]

Player: "I have never thrown a more devastating attack!"

Torment: After eating the damage, eyes lighting up. "My turn."

Devastating Counter

[muted blaze]

I made it in reaction to what's happening live in a session I'm playing rn

[ashen crown]

Bed Evil

Also, if it has a self heat weapon and taking heat grants it free Overshield, idk if making the free damage come from that is necessarily… productive? Is that the right word to use?

Cause the flow chart is:

take heat-> gain Overshield and deal damage
Clear Overshield->deal heat

But then the weapon throws in
Attack->take heat->gain Overshield and deal damage-> potentially hit and deal damage

It’s redundant in a way I suppose

Oh wait 1 difficulty

Okay that kinda balances things out

But in that case I feel the weapon damage + free damage need to be balanced around each other in a way akin to Breacher Shotguns

And those have 2 native difficulty, don’t auto hit, and deal 6/8/10 damage. This first attack auto hits and the second one scales at 7/9/11 with only 1 difficulty scaling + Knockback 1

There are nuances keeping it in check like the Heat giving a limit on round usage + having 1 less threat, but there are also nuances buffing it like not suffering from engagement difficulty + free Overshield that ultimately offset that to not matter much imo

To say it in less words- either that’s too much damage or the free damage shouldn’t proc on taking heat

[ashen crown]

After reflecting on it I realize Assassins and Specters and other strikers can easily reach Breacher damage without going through the same nightmare of hoops so nevermind actually

[viscid ingot]

I mean, Assassin needs to rely on others to knock peeps prone in order to stab them for true damage.

Specter has to isolate targets in order to yoink them into the darkness.

Scourer needs to double tap like Breacher but it is spread out to two rounds in a row it needs to hit the same target.

The only one who can easily reach the same damage threshold without that much of a problem is Ronin tbh.

[ashen crown]

Well, non-rebake Ronin

I guess point half stands?

Berserker is also worth mentioning

[viscid ingot]

True. Non-Rebake Ronin

[ashen crown]

Despite having no true double attack they have 2 methods of attacking twice

[viscid ingot]

My Ronin+ maaaay be a little bit too insane but yeah.

[ashen crown]

Aggression and Avalanche Charge

[viscid ingot]

Yeah Berk too.

Berker, Burger.

[ashen crown]

And like this fella, the Berserker relies on being hit to trigger some of its effects

[viscid ingot]

But its Shred is at least guarded behind a paywall. (Crits)

Still, the damage is nothing to scoff at yeah.

[ashen crown]

I’m ignoring the shred for the purposes of damage output rn

Since this thing so far doesn’t have any explicit AP or shred

[viscid ingot]

It is similar to Breacher tho in the two attack hit equals beeg damage whether Shred or no.

But yeah, the Torment is a bit weird to look at rn.

Nothing truly concrete yet.

[ashen crown]

Regardless, unless the free damage is really low, 7/9/11 damage scaling feels a tad too high rn and the self Heat into free damage feels almost too direct a combo only if it’s still getting the Overshield from it

And I doubt Bedevil will have any round limits otherwise it may as well be a feature of the Flail

[vagrant grotto]

Terrifying Emergence
Trait

After using Excruciating Transposition, all hostile characters in the Torment’s Sensors cannot voluntarily move closer to it until the end of their next turn.

Flensing Flail
Trait

When Flail of Gehenna hits a target in the Danger Zone, the target is Shredded until the end of their next turn.

Spiteful End
Trait
When destroyed while in the Danger Zone or Exposed, self destruct

Torment Nexus
Main Nexus, Smart, Seeking, +1/+2/+3
[Range 5][2 Kinetic + 2/3/4 Burn]
On Hit: Until the target clears all Burn, they gain Lock On whenever they fail a check to clear Burn.

Many of these are conceptual and lack numbers/saves

[viscid ingot]

[Torment Nexus]
Ouch.

[vagrant grotto]

Writer: “I have written this scifi story, the Torment Nexus, as a cautionary tale”
Me: “I have reinvented the Torment Nexus, also as a cautionary tale (for your players)”

[vagrant grotto]

The zap will be small like how Hatchet’s cleave is small

[ashen crown]

Gotcha fair

[ashen crown]

Would Tortured Transposition be a better name? I’m a big fan of alliteration

[vagrant grotto]

I probably wouldnt

These names are all WIP

[vagrant grotto]

Obelisk of Abhorrence
System, Deployable, Limited 1

When hit/ending turn in burst 3 area around the Obelisk, Stun until start of target’s next turn

Legion of the Damned
System, Recharge 6+, Quick Tech, +2/+4/+6
The Torment makes a tech attack against a hostile character in Sensors. On a hit, all allied characters in line of sight to the target may move their Speed towards the target as a Reaction, ignoring engagement and reactions.

[tame wharf]

second one is cool just a 'jump that person'

whats the Torrent's Sensors?

[placid glacier]

I really hope the Torment gets something along the lines of Manticore also being anti Energy damage to really put the hurt on NuCav users

[vagrant grotto]

The Torment? (I may need a new name) It’s probably 5 or 8

I think Torment is gonna be my first Striker/Support lol

[umbral sluice]

wait is Zealot not that

[vagrant grotto]

Names:

• Reckoner
• Agonizer
• Tormentor
• Bedeviler
• Erinyes

[vagrant grotto]

Other way around

[umbral sluice]

ah yeah

[umbral sluice]

I think Reckoner and Tormentor sound a bit too much like Beckoner and Torrent respectively so I'd vote against those personally

idk why but the name Flagellant pops to my head even if that's not necessarily the vibe you want

[final violet]

Having both the Torrent and the Torment is an asset rather than a ding, and I thought that's what you were going for.

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah it’s gonna be flagellating the opponent more so lol

[umbral sluice]

I think Agonizer pops out to me the most atm

[vagrant grotto]

Reckoner I’m okay with sounding like “Beckoner”

Tormentor is better than Torment (nearly mispelled that as Torrent, case in point)

It’s a pickle

[umbral sluice]

hmm

Tormentor also lets me flavour it as a Vlad

with it's iconic Tormentor Spines

[final violet]

Elf?

ELFs and sprites are lightning-like atmospheric phenomena, and naming an NPC the Elf (or Sprite, but the Spite exists) fits better with PPG's name scheme than my projects.

[vagrant grotto]

Others, broadening:

• Fiend
• Devil

I’m not calling it “Elf” of all things

The vibe here is Manticore, Castigator of the Enemies of the Godhead

[final violet]

Maybe nerdy references to random facts I know because of unrestricted internet access are more my thing.

In that case, Confessor.

[vagrant grotto]

Aight I’m gonna stew on names for now

[vagrant grotto]

Even if I wanted to, I’d feel compelled to change the name of “Flagellant’s Cleansing” on the Zealot

[drifting parcel]

I fuck with this heavy. Has some strong synergy with the Capacitor, vulture and even some select engineers. I'd say simplify damage to a burst 1 area

[drifting parcel]

Bit out of left field but because it's whole vibe is shedding it's over shield for effect. Why not the Nuckelavee

[tame wharf]

So is the way to deal with it to shoot it to death instead of hacking it?

[vagrant grotto]

Still working on it, but maaaaaybe? 🤷

[tame wharf]

Fair

[vagrant grotto]

I generally try to keep naming conventions to match the lancer CRB; the major breaks in convention are the Ghost, Vulture, and maybe Boombox

Most of them are named after abstract capabilities/actions or objects instead of creatures

[drifting parcel]

Ah fair

[vagrant grotto]

So if anything I’m gonna keep it broad instead of a proper noun

[ashen crown]

Or Armored Core/Titanfall enemies (joke)

[vagrant grotto]

I’m also trying to avoid the 3 most common starting letters for NPC classes used in the CRB: A, B, and S

More ideas, refining the list

Harrower
Tormentor
Reckoner
Ire
Malice
Fiend
Censure

[vagrant grotto]

Before someone suggests Wrath: It’s already used by a Liminal Space mech and I want to avoid confusion (plus I think I can figure out something else appropriate)

[tame wharf]

Could always just call it 'Harrow'

Imo adding 'er' to the end of it makes it feel clunkier

[vagrant grotto]

I like Harrower more but noted

[tame wharf]

Mechanically is the 'when it gains Heat get OS' going to be 1/round?

[vagrant grotto]

No clue yet

Gaining OS is manageable though

Doesn’t stack

[tame wharf]

That was gonna be my next question

If its OS stacks

[vagrant grotto]

What? Never

Stacking OS is an unhealthy mechanic IMHO

Regenerating HP at least has a cap

[final violet]

Well, crap.

[vagrant grotto]

biggest issue on the Ire's kit right now is all the fiddly bits of damage and heat

[viscid ingot]

The Heckler

[vagrant grotto]

It's between "Ire" and "Malice" atm

[umbral sluice]

I like Ire personally

[vagrant grotto]

mayyyyyyyyyyyybe Harrower. But there's no "I" NPCs so that's novel lol

ugh trying to determine how the Overshield application should hook into the kit

and how the self-heat should key into everything else

Excruciating Transposition
System, Recharge 5+, Quick Tech
The Ire teleports to a space adjacent to a hostile character in SENSORS. That character must pass a SYSTEMS save or become STUNNED until the start of their next turn. The Ire then takes 1d6 Energy AP damage.

[final violet]

There's already a Harrower in Mythos.

[vagrant grotto]

I'm already competing with Knight in Mythos so I'll scratch Harrower off the list

[viscid ingot]

Hmmmmmm

Oooh, what about the Monolith?

[vagrant grotto]

It's down to Ire and Malice, maybe Reckoner if I'm okay with the "Beckoner" rhyme

the vibes are

• HORUS Manticore
• Alecto from Hades
• Valkyr from Warframe

we're moving fast and breaking things (sometimes ourselves)

we're reckless, we're swinging a big fucking flail

we get strength from pain

[minor crest]

what about penitent?

[vagrant grotto]

this NPC is not penitent

They're making everyone else penitent

[minor crest]

fair lol

[vagrant grotto]

like, here, Alecto: https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Alecto

[minor crest]

ah yes i remember now

i was confusing her with the one who doesn't really talk lol

[vagrant grotto]

Ah Tisiphone

[minor crest]

yeah!

[vagrant grotto]

this NPC is caps lock [ON]

[minor crest]

but yeah all of these names are pretty good tbh. my vote inches more towards ire fwiw

[vagrant grotto]

perf

[umbral sluice]

it's giving Ironclad Slay the Spire and Flagellant Darkest Dungeon too, imo

but yeah I'm still on Ire personally

[vagrant grotto]

good, Ironclad is good vibes

[umbral sluice]

my beloved

[vagrant grotto]

don't know enough about DD to gauge it but I think this'll be less "tanky" than what I know of Flagellant

it'll still be a brick shithouse though

[umbral sluice]

i see i see

yeah Flag in DD is a self damage DOT/support unit mainly

I'm really curious to see how the flavour text will be on this though

love me a good "strength from pain" archetype

[vagrant grotto]

Torment Nexus
Main Nexus, Seeking, Smart, +1/+2/+3
[Range 5][2 Kinetic + 2/3/4 Burn]
On Hit: Until the target clears Burn, they gain LOCK ON whenever they fail a check or save.

intensifying the Torment Nexus

[umbral sluice]

oof that's very nasty

love it

[opaque crescent]

have we not learned to NOT build the torment nexus yet

they wrote a book about this

[vagrant grotto]

Good news: this one is also a cautionary tale

[umbral sluice]

and HORUS has studied it for their nefarious goals

[vagrant grotto]

"don't fuck with the NPC that has the Torment Nexus"

FLENSING FLAIL    Trait
When FLAIL OF GEHENNA hits a target in the DANGER ZONE, the target is SHREDDED until the end of their next turn.

more optionals

HORRIFIC EMERGENCE (ULTRA)
Trait
After using EXCRUCIATING TRANSPOSITION, all hostile characters in the Ire’s SENSORS must pass a SYSTEMS save or be unable to voluntarily move closer to the Ire until the end of their next turn.

This had Ultra trait vibes

SPITEFUL END    Trait
The Ire may SELF-DESTRUCT. If it is destroyed while in the DANGER ZONE or EXPOSED, it explodes as if using SELF-DESTRUCT at the end of the round.

[vagrant grotto]

I need you all to imagine this thing recklessly charging towards you, teleporting out of your chest, and screaming “FUCK. OFF!” while swinging a flail at your head

[ashen crown]

This seems significantly stronger than Telefrag, which is a full action for Jam on a frail NPC with no such Overshield benefits nor desire to be near it’s opponents

[ashen crown]

Would this be a veteran trait to parallel Last Line or a regular optional?

[vagrant grotto]

Read it again? Stunned until start of turn vs jammed until end

[ashen crown]

Side note I do like Ire as a name quite a lot

[ashen crown]

Ohhhhhh- my b my b

[umbral sluice]

start of next turn stun claims another /j

[vagrant grotto]

It seemed like a neat way to gain some accuracy with inaccurate flail, and have an off-support effect

[umbral sluice]

(i do like SONT stun to be clear)

[vagrant grotto]

This is me attempting to use Shredded and AP less, aren’t you all proud of me lol

[opaque crescent]

Posting for interest for playtest at one of the below times next weekend:
🐌 - <t:1774706400:f>
- <t:1774724400:f>
- <t:1774807200:f>

[vagrant grotto]

I am super waitlist here, may be busy

[umbral sluice]

you already know girlie

[vagrant grotto]

Okay this is shaping up more

Bedevil
Trait, 1/turn
When the Torment receives Heat, it inflicts 2/3/4 Energy AP damage to a character in Range 3. 

Flail of Gehenna
Heavy Melee, 2 Heat (Self), Knockback 1
+1/+2/+3, +1 Difficulty
[Threat 2][7/9/11 Energy damage]
On attack: Gain Overshield 2/3/4. On hit, instead gain Overshield 5/7/9.

Excruciating Transposition
System, Recharge 5+, Quick Tech
The Ire teleports to a space adjacent to a hostile character in SENSORS. That character must pass a SYSTEMS save or become STUNNED until the start of their next turn. The Ire then takes 1d6 Energy AP damage.

This is looking like base kit

[tame wharf]

Prototype Pyro with this

[ashen crown]

Ya know giving the Overshield to the flail is very much not where I imagined things going. But I like it, in a strange way.

It still feels like a high numbers bh, especially with the true combo with Bedevil, but that’s something to be determined in playtesting I suppose

[muted blaze]

The torment nexus 😩

In some situations there'd be more lock on than attacks

[vagrant grotto]

I wanna take a moment to highlight this one out because I think folks may not understand what I’m doing with it:

Vanguards naturally want to kick opponents off of objectives, even if they’re not very good at holding those objectives (see: Torrents)

To me, self-destruct used in this telegraphed way is an excellent soft threat to encourage opponents to leave the vicinity (usually around the objective itself)

So it actually ties in directly to the damage-oriented Vanguard game plan

Dunno if this is gonna be a Veteran feature or not, maybe it will!

Probably safer than one available to a Grunt/Formation

[steel apex]

yeah that's sort of what I figured, and it's similar (if more final) than how I had my own manticore-analogue working with a time-delayed AoE burst effect

As a Veteran trait, I will say that it DOES sort of overlap a bit with Parting Gift

I know you have considerations with grunts/formations, and I probably wouldn't make it a baseline or base optional trait either for that reason, but as a Veteran trait I think you could stand to juice it up a little. Maybe increase the radius a bit

[ashen crown]

I think there’s a precedent to Veteran/Ultra Traits acting as specialized versions of general versions- like the Capacitor Ultra trait paralleling Harbinger Rockets or Volley Module

Iirc some of the rebake Veteran traits are similar I did not

[steel apex]

Sure, I just feel (personally, anecdotally, at a glance) that this doesn't add as MUCH to being able to self-destruct as I think Valk has the budget to explore

[ashen crown]

Good point

[steel apex]

the additional effect only procs if it dies in one of two particular circumstances, which while perhaps common to how the NPC wants to be, means it could simply not go off at all

It's sort of like Briareos Frame in that respect

[ashen crown]

Imo I think it could be instant/end of turn + given the Deathcounter Telegraph treatment

[steel apex]

I think the issue with that sort of timing is it makes it hard to deal with AND it doesn't really achieve the goal of "make people move" so much as "be a big damage stick"

the analogue to stuff like this in the existing NPC roster are things like Orbital Strike and Atlas Missiles which have a timing of "end of next round" for that reason

the point isn't REALLY "I'm gonna be a bomb for more damage," it's "you need to move or take damage"

[ashen crown]

Ah okay that makes sense

In which case buffing the explosion is probably the most warranted buff method- and I’m there are plenty of fun ways to do so

[steel apex]

I know the Manticore CAN blow up immediately, I just don't think there's a lot of merit for an NPC doing so UNLESS the damage is more measured, and baseline self destruct damage is (imo) a bit too high for that

Berserker Aggression and Operator Self-Erasure are things I'm more copacetic with in terms of "damage when dead" type effects

[ashen crown]

I think back to Self Erasure getting a control effect rather than getting a damage buff in the rebake.

[steel apex]

you can turn it into more of a living bomb with Deniable Asset, but even then I capped it at 6/8/10

self-destruct is swingy and, in theory, might not do a whole lot, or it might do a whole bunch

[ashen crown]

The operator’s range band cut certainly makes it more relevant, but imo considering how slippery Operators are I almost never expect it to trigger unless the Operator intentionally tries to trigger it.

Base and rebake operator- there are 100 places an operator wants to be and “next to an enemy” ain’t one of them

[steel apex]

yeah for the most part I don't really think of self-erasure as more than a ribbon

it's absolutely not really a major factor in what it does or how it plays outside of grunt operator telefrag memes

[ashen crown]

You could read it as a “discourages getting close to the artillery” tool but with its teleportation and Self Erasure not doing too much in the first place it’s not a strong incentive

[muted blaze]

I'm a big fan of 1 stress for all because I hate making enemy mechs self destruct

Compared to everything else in the NPC article. 4d6 damage feels out of place. Especially since a commander ultra pyro explodes as hard as a veteran hornet

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah was thinking the same thing yesterday after writing it. Was thinking of upping the damage to Castigate levels or bump the radius yeah. Numbers are all debatable. But you’re picking up what I’m putting down!

More Orbital strike than self erasure here

[vagrant grotto]

The Ire is currently clocked at Size 1 but it may get a Size 2 bump

Mostly because I feel like some of its stuff at size 1 should be Range 3 but others should be range 2?? Whereas size 2 is pretty comfortable with universal burst 2 spacing

Like the flail feels like it should be threat 2 max but the Bedevil zap feels like it should be range 3

[viscid ingot]

Me personally I would name it [Petty Loser] for the funny but that is just me.

[vagrant grotto]

do whatever you want at your table, but I'm cultivating my own vibes

[viscid ingot]

Fair fair, also is the Ire the name you're choosing to stick with it?

[vagrant grotto]

I think so

[viscid ingot]

Is a pretty solid name

Judging by what you sent before, its a Vanguard Manticore-style NPC yeah?

[vagrant grotto]

yeah exactly

Damage-forward vangaurd with some force-multiplication support tools

[viscid ingot]

I'd say go with Size 1 for now then Upsize if needed.

[vagrant grotto]

then I'll probably up the flail's reach to 3

[viscid ingot]

Probably for the best.

[ashen crown]

Do you imagine this will have a secondary role apart from Striker? If it had to have one I can imagine Controller being it but honestly I can see it being a pure striker

[vagrant grotto]

Support

Abhorrent Obelisk
System, Deployable, Limited 1, Quick Action
Obelisk (Size 1, HP 12/15/18, Evasion 5, E-Defense 8, Tags: Deployable)

Deploy an obelisk to an adjacent free space, which creates a Burst 3 area. Hostile characters in the area are IMPAIRED and take 2 Heat at the end of each of their turns until they leave the area.

[muted blaze]

Sitrep for tonight

[vagrant grotto]

ayoo, let's go???

[muted blaze]

||I know the opfor consists of an elite commander Kensei (Or just Commander) with lead the charge and Gaussian blur called "Colonel Nelson from the United Kingdom Her Majesties Royal Navy. And have a veteran support with Desant hardpoints called "The HMS Victory". Then the plan is to mount the Support, charge the blade then lead the charge -> Gaussian blur with MASSIVE threat||

||The rest of the opfor... IDK||

[ashen crown]

Huh. Why?

[vagrant grotto]

Looking for feedback on an aggressive, vanguard-type NPC class themed after the Manticore, which focuses upon driving opponents away from objectives through a combination of damage and force multiplication.
please ping with feedback thanks

[vagrant grotto]

making enemies more vulnerable to allies: Stunned, Lock On, Shredded

the optionals are more support coded at this point

like yeah it can captialize on all these effects, but also buddies can too

Numbers are debatable at the moment, this is just the first draft

[south cypress]

I feel like with how much action compression Legion of the Damned can give to the Ire's allies it could stand to be a Full Tech

[vagrant grotto]

Noted; I disagree because Rally the Righteous exists, but noted

[ashen crown]

Now that I look at Legion of the Damned I can see where the support angle comes from

[vagrant grotto]

it's an off-support thing 100%

[ashen crown]

I don’t immediately agree on Legion of the Damned being a full action per se, as that robs the Ire of a lot of it’s actions, but I can see it being watched for nerfs in the future

[minor crest]

Valk how do you feel about the Ire as size 2

[vagrant grotto]

I'm down for it

was sticking with size 1/range 3 to start

[minor crest]

Excruciating Transposition with a Size 2 footprint sounds interesting in my head

I guess it depends on what direction you want the Ire to have in terms of contesting objectives

[umbral sluice]

@vagrant grotto Hey so funny thing about Start of Next turn Stun I just discovered: this uncharges the D/D288

Just watched a Knight do that do a poor poor dd empakaai

[void wave]

wait why does it uncharge D/D?

[umbral sluice]

last line here

[viscid ingot]

Ala oof

Melee lads be scared, lest you draw the attention of the Ire.

[drifting parcel]

Working on my Ultra Boombox

[viscid ingot]

Ultra Boombox: "Come Lancers, I will play you the song of my people!"

Plays [What I'm made of] starting guitar riffs loudly.

[vagrant grotto]

plays Eruption by Van Halen

[viscid ingot]

Truly an Ultra, its perfect scoring Through the Fire and the Flames.

Those lancers are cooked bro.

[drifting parcel]

The theme of the faction

Evil MEnacing

KTB Brttish Assassins

They're House of Sand

So it's MEtallica songs

[viscid ingot]

Do it like Jojo and name them after Metallica songs

[drifting parcel]

This is Devil's Dance and Master of Puppets

[viscid ingot]

Niiiice

[drifting parcel]

I do this all across my Campagins

[tame wharf]

COO Brightbend - "Sick of the Silence"

[muted blaze]

# PPG feedback

## Sitrep
### Triple sitrep
- Was really cool, long. "Get everyone out at the end" felt doable but HARD. Otherwise, very neat. 3 smaller things in one is cool. Diff terrain made it harder (oops support)
- Gauntlet and triangulate focus on getting to one place. 
    - Clumping enemies in one place and trying to get them in one
- Had 12 structure and stayed to roughly 2-3 activations above the PC activation count. Players were overwhelmed and 2 reinforcements never entered play
    - DPS was mostly focused around limited charges (War pike with explosive tips) or full actions (DD288 Empakai and brawler Orchis)

### Triangulate
- Continues to be very interesting in terms of complexity. Actual triangulation is cool. Takes more involvement in order which is cool. Positioning and sensors are a big cool puzzle. takes action econ but not too limiting because it takes about 3-5 search actions to find it
- Felt good because when you took the QA you *did something* without a contested check
    - How would this feel on smaller sensors
### Gauntlet
- One thing not liked that was painful. When digging up the booty. If someone is adjacent you have to make a contested check. That was painful. (With regular overcharge rules felt very bad)
- Given the game was "pretty long", if overcharge reroll was used for this it would have been "much much worse"
    - Personally unsure why
### Extraction
- Interaction on grabbing payload was "thank god"
- "Can I grab it with the Empakai hand or ppunch it with the DD288"
    - That would end well

## NPCs
### Veteran knight
- Surprisingly oppressive
- "Stunned is bullshit", I get it. It's only on the target of the duel... *Realised it was until start of next turn, less bs than thought*
- "How do you kill them?"
- Turned off a DD288 and forced them prone on a horse
- PCs took a long while to deal with the the knight. Was hardly attacked, and kept up templar's shield a lot. Never actually attacked while it was up.
- "Would like a way to deal with the duel"
- "Duelling two people at a time was harsh", two people were locked into the game
- Whole movement was decided by where the knight is. Compelled duel locked them into the fight, the iceout drone meant they had to stick to the iceout drone to stay within melee rannge
### Regular Napalm
- "Those guys terrify me, so much"
- "Did not feel threatened" <- Horse
- Line 5 is scary on a small map with a small objective
- 1 difficulty should counteract this but it kept hitting :skull:

### Commander elite Kensei
- "Where is the Kensei from" "PPG" "Ok Valk I'm killing you"
    - "Who shreds you until the end of the sitrep"
- Kensei is real cool, 
- "So many free actions"
- Felt like it had an answer to "absolutely everything" the lancaster said. Apart from grappling where it would smack the shit out of people
- Had 3 whole turns of sheathe and slash before it had to stabilize
- No one in the party capitalised off the heat. Very little controllers.
- Party rushed it and played it's game
- Otherwise it was on a horse
    - For 1 round
- Hard to run because it was in a "5 meter squared space"
- Gaussian blur was neat. Only used once.
- "Is this worse than a demo, no I don't think so"
- At the very least demolisher, it's a stagnated double quick actions and it takes heat.
- Would like to see an "easier way" to deal with the shredded
    - Stabilize was hard in an action intense sitrep
- 3/4 of the PCs were shredded by round 3
- Missing aid action
- Players played into it's game a lot, and lacked controller options to keep it away
- Had the grenade pistol optional. Was never used and bounced the first sys trauma
- Had Gaussian blur. Was used once, it positioned where it wanted to so it was rarely used. Thanks horse

Here's notes from the playtest Valk :>

[vagrant grotto]

thank you! sounds like everything was performing nominally tbh

it was riding a... horse? was that a support [K] with Desant Hardpoints?

I guess I'm not too surprised the crowd of melee NPCs turned the "gauntlet" into a clusterfuck

Glad that "get everyone out" felt doable but hard

this seemed like a big-ass fight so impressed that the players got as far as they did

I can totally understand a microstun pissing off a D/D 288 user that hard though

[muted blaze]

Ye

[vagrant grotto]

sounds like it got knocked off at least

[muted blaze]

It did

Quick march desant hardpoints to allow move 5 tiles as a protocol then slash

[vagrant grotto]

woof

helluva combo

the Elite in them definitely sounded rough too

[muted blaze]

Yeah

It was

[viscid ingot]

Knight with Support Horse is wild but it checks out.

I have to try a combo like that in the future.

[ashen crown]

Ultra Desant Hardpoint Support ferrying around 12 melee strikers around the field

[sudden cosmos]

Just got out of a wallflower fugue state to see talk of a New Guy appearing in the PPG lineup

And so far it seems like the only thought I had from its conception to now has been addressed, being the name

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah I’m unsure of whether the recent pdf I linked is vibing with folks

Worried about overloading stuff on it

[ashen crown]

How so?

[sudden cosmos]

Oh there was a drop

Remember what I said about being in a wallflower fugue state

[vagrant grotto]

Like if I should have left self destruct off its base kit

Or if I should’ve given it another non-recharge feature for its turns

[sudden cosmos]

Lemme read about this fella

[viscid ingot]

Unless its main gimmick is to just blow the fuck up. Then I think you can leave it in, but if it is supposed to be a lad that threatens immediate vicinity then you could have it as an Optional?

[vagrant grotto]

It’s mostly a ribbon

Still needs to engage the self destruct

[ashen crown]

Imo it occupies a space comparable to Berserker, and that fella has 1 recharge trait and a weapon and 2 passives. So in terms of actives I don’t think it’s desperate for anything

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah being Melee means Grapple and Ram synergy

[ashen crown]

You can say the same about the Cataphract and Ronin too

[vagrant grotto]

It needs +1 acc to offset the flail

[ashen crown]

Most CRB strikers actually

[ashen crown]

Or Lock On

[vagrant grotto]

So lock on and ram work great, yes

[ashen crown]

I half wonder if it could use higher sensors but that’s a later thing

[vagrant grotto]

5 felt okay, but I could see the argument for 8

[viscid ingot]

If its a Manticore like, it probably has low sensors range and pretty good survivability to get to its sweet spot.

[ashen crown]

Something to playtest

[vagrant grotto]

Also dunno if I should plate this thing with armor or not

[ashen crown]

Manticore has Sensors 10

[vagrant grotto]

And/or hp

[sudden cosmos]

I'm sure this has been addressed already but why does that weapon give overshield

[viscid ingot]

I am legally blind

[ashen crown]

As is, it’s a striker with self damage and an Overshield weapon.

[vagrant grotto]

Thought it was 8 but okay

[viscid ingot]

I think 1 Armor should be fine.

[umbral sluice]

Manti is 10, Lycan is 8

[ashen crown]

Was about to say

[umbral sluice]

frankly Manti doesnt feel like it should have ten but thats whatever

[vagrant grotto]

I wanted it off of the passive

[ashen crown]

Anyway, if Berserker has Stampede Defense and 1 armor I think this fella can have some armor too

It’s engaging in highly risky plays so it needs some survivability

[umbral sluice]

I'd personally agree with 1 armour too

[ashen crown]

And imo the Overshield gain is not nearly as strong as Stampede Defense

[viscid ingot]

Stampede Defense is nuts but is offset by how many ways it can be disabled.

[ashen crown]

True- but with a self damage base trait + the miss Overshield being a bit of a pittance it’s still not nearly as strong

I’d honestly argue for less HP and more armor if it comes to it for both flavor and to tie closer to Transposition + Overshield

[vagrant grotto]

Anyway this thing started with like, way too much loaded on the passive

Current iteration is my trying to reduce the fiddly damage bits

Fiddly damage and heat

[ashen crown]

I am curious if the 8/10/12 Heat Cap will stick too. Yes it’s a self heating unit without a heat clear trait but the Ire gains a lot more from being targeted by heat. Emphasis on curious however definitely need to playtest it to find out

[vagrant grotto]

The usual tools for stopping melee are hacks

[ashen crown]

Also true

[viscid ingot]

I'd bring it down to 8/9/10 and see how that performs.

[vagrant grotto]

It’s a bit of an anti berserker

I’m keeping the heat cap as is for now

[viscid ingot]

Feels like

Same Vibes

Different Methods

[sudden cosmos]

I guess, looking at it, I am kinda wondering what out of its base kit makes it supporty

[vagrant grotto]

If I do anything, it’s going 9/12/15 and making the flail 3 heat

[vagrant grotto]

The stun

[viscid ingot]

That is a lot of Heat and Heatcap

[vagrant grotto]

Most of the support is in the optionals, admittedly

[viscid ingot]

Maybe shuffle one of the weaker ones to the forefront?

[vagrant grotto]

But it’s very striker forward compared to like, zealot

[vagrant grotto]

I mean have you seen Pyro

[sudden cosmos]

I didn't wanna be the wingwong who says something like "a Demolisher stuns but it's not a support" but it really does feel frontloaded with striker stuff

[vagrant grotto]

Demolisher stuns until the end of next turn

I view stun to Start of next turn as more of a light disruption/accuracy booster tool

[viscid ingot]

Fair

[vagrant grotto]

Which is literally what it’s doing with the flail

But yes

Otherwise, damage forward

[sudden cosmos]

Like, it could telefrag in and get an easy smack with the flail if that stun hits. Pretty spicy combo (obviously contingent on a failed save and a hit)

[vagrant grotto]

The support off-role is so folks don’t ask me why the optionals at more supportive

[umbral sluice]

Pyro is one thing. at least thats four self heat. what the hell is Engineer doing with all that

[viscid ingot]

Light Disruption and Accuracy Booster is right since Stunned still reduces an enemy's Evasion to 5 while Stunned.

[vagrant grotto]

Dunno but it should get some heat for turret deployment!

[sudden cosmos]

Engineer has it because engineers are cool 😎

I do not have bias

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah, I know I’m right 😤

[viscid ingot]

Engineer is a Support that forgot to leave behind the heatcap.

[umbral sluice]

this is true, thank you IsaTheEngie

[vagrant grotto]

Engineer is an Artillery Rearguard

Reminding me I should remake by GW2 engie Holotechnician Jatt in Lancer somehow, thanks

[viscid ingot]

My Engineer+ is a Rearguard but can also fit on the Frontline now if given certain optionals.

Also he is the absolute bane of people with RBJJ and any form of Flight.

[vagrant grotto]

Yeah I saw Kai’s rebake give Guardian to turrets and realized “oh. This is the piece I was missing.”

I made Prism as an Artillery/defender at first and then realized that Engineer was the true Artillery/Defender the whole time

[sudden cosmos]

(Mildly off-topic but amalgam rules. I hasn't touched holosmith since amalgam dropped.)

[viscid ingot]

Last I remember it is the same as mine, that is coming from an optional.

[umbral sluice]

artillery rearguard that if left alive just a little too long will absolutely murder the party

love my engies

[viscid ingot]

Upsizes the Turret to Size 1, alpng with other stuff along with Guardian.

[umbral sluice]

love hitting some poor bastards with 4 Kinetic Damage seven times

[sudden cosmos]

Looking forward to tormenting my wallflower party with an ultra engie. Even with the more killable rebake turrets, it put the fear of god in the party.

[viscid ingot]

I had to cap up Engineer+ turrets on my end. 6 Turrets max and destroy oldest with normal.

With Shell Rig (The optional thing that makes it bigger) it is limited to 3 Turrets.

[vagrant grotto]

(I stopped playing before the third expansion)

[umbral sluice]

honestly rebake engi feels meaner to me

if they dont have the right tools that mf can ramp really fast

[viscid ingot]

Rebake Engineer is a juggernaut you do not want to leave alive.

The longer it runs, the harder it hits.

[vagrant grotto]

Anyway

Happy for engineer and its big-ass heatcap

It can be a comrade to the Ire

[viscid ingot]

Is slightly weird tho for it to have the heatcap but nothing really to offset its generous heatsinks.

[vagrant grotto]

A lot of the numbers are up for debate, but not that much debate

[vagrant grotto]

1 heat per turret deployed should do the trick

Like I do for occultist

[viscid ingot]

Hmm, genius.

[vagrant grotto]

But yeah anyway back to Ire

And by that I mean “I sleep”

I’ll catch up later

[viscid ingot]

Judging by its current iteration now. You think Ire would benefit from tanky partners or fast bois on the frontline?

[vagrant grotto]

Feedback welcome, just feels over design thanks

And yes it would pair great with a melee defender like Howler, or a melee support like Boombox

And like. Obviously Zealot

[viscid ingot]

Ah, so Melee Frontliners that like throwing wrenches into plans.

Got it.

[mental burrow]

https://tenor.com/view/guitar-mad-max-fury-road-electric-guitar-rocking-out-jamming-gif-3389097859580245812

[vagrant grotto]

@muted blaze from last night’s playtest: It sounded like some folks were relatively new to PPG stuff, which led to some shock value?

I think everything sounded “systems nominal” from your play report

Veteran Knight being so threatening was good, though I suppose a little worrying

Kensei, I’m not sure if I wanna keep the permaShredded or not, I just want charged profile to have some bite though? So it’s gotta have AP at least

The dogpile on the gauntlet objective would be similar to regular gauntlet, though without action costs spent to capture the gauntlet objective

Outta curiosity, how many attempted digs were there? So I know how many times they failed the contested check

[muted blaze]

6-7 I think. No overcharge reroll

But overcharge try again would have worked IG but OC was core

It was also a size 2 gauntlet rather than size 3

DPS was also inconsistent tied to reactions, full actions or limited charges

And there was a lack of controllers among the party

DPS was also drastically reduced due to a nerfed executioner

I'm curious how the sitrep would have gone with PPG rules and with base talents

[vagrant grotto]

What was the player team comp? Because if they were damage-forward, they may have actually wanted to kill stuff to relieve some pressure

The goal of action-oriented objectives is not to obviate damage-dealing, but to make control/support competitive with it

Size 2 gauntlet is okay though I think

[muted blaze]

Orchis w/ buffed brawler and Blackbeard systems

Lancaster w/ a 3d6 damage war pike, conditional better knockback and accuracy (duelist variant)

Gorgon w/ drones (iceout MVP) and double vorpals (got focused some more to prevent vorpals going off)

Empakai w/ dd288 and nerfed executioner (half damage on both targets and reliable rather than just the second target)

[opaque crescent]

i'll say as the one piloting the only mech not directly looking at throwing out numbers at people, i didn't feel like i could reasonably afford the action econ to interact with the objective if it wasn't as a protocol

though i imagine that's more of an effect of the slopment nexus than of the sitrep design

[tame wharf]

@vagrant grotto do you have the doublebaked bombard on hand

[vagrant grotto]

No but the only changes are

• increase base speed to 3
• remove cluster munitions
• increase bombard cannon damage to 6/8/10

So… yes I do have them lol

[sand mulch]

no more playtest tomorrow 😔

[viscid ingot]

Damn bruh

[south cypress]

Very quick Prism feedback

LL4 Control map with Agimaxxed Vlad, Drone/Centimane Sunzi, 2x AssCan+Krakatoa Drake, Andromeda Sherman, and Melee Minotaur.

Vet Prism had Slippery, Mobile Projectors, and Scintillating Gleam

Prism scored two points by leaving its Projector on a hard-to-reach CZ from the beginning, then used Scintillating Gleam to protect a Lurker and a Hive for 1 round, got off one Lock On Diffraction Beam shot against the Sherman in round 2 before losing it to a Structure check, then died early in round 3 to a Vlad Pankrati Charge Heavy Melee swing.

Dictated targeting for 2 characters' attacks (Sherman and Drake) for 1 round, failed its Burn check against 7 Burn from an Andromeda + Krakatoa wombo combo to lose its first strcuture, then ate Sunzi chip damage (Puppetmaster's Electropulse off of a Hive's Razor Swarm of all things) before dying to the Vlad.

Overall consumed 1 Barrage, 3 Skirmishes, 1 Pankrati Charge, and 1 Electropulse, and ruined 1 Sherman turn with Lock On Diffraction Beam (He popped ASURA to Disengage -> Stabilize to heal away from the Lurker!) Probably prolonged Lurker and Hive's lives by 1 round given their hp totals later and Scintillating Gleam blocking their inclusion in a Krakatoa AoE.

PC feedback:

• "Scintillating Gleam seems like it could be extremely obnoxious with the right team comp, like Bombard + Witch or other high target priority classes"
• AoEs being unable to target allies w/in Scintillating Gleam felt bad. PCs suggested applying Hidden to allies w/in Burst 3 rather than LoS blocking. (General "AoEs require LoS" complaint tbh) w/ justification that it would still be a QA trade at worst and would reward AoE weapons

My thoughts:

• Scintillating Gleam is neat as a way to buy time for allies, but it does feel a bit too good at forcing interactions as compared to Massif Defenders.
• Diffraction Beam is really cool and good and combos well with Refracting Armor in the close quarters environment of Control map CZs

[ashen crown]

It just occurred to me that the Prism is like... a CRAZY potent objective holder. Like if it puts its projector by an objective, you literally can't do anything about it except kill the Prism (or CC the Projector to death via overheat or what have you). How has that not occurred to me before?

[viscid ingot]

Not many builds can heat bomb to overheat as well, so that is rough.

[placid glacier]

got an interesting opportunity this week, dming for a (mostly) new party