6-17: The Devil in the Details

[The.Vortex]

(Why is there no thread for this already? It is out a month now, has 7 reviews, and quite a few problems - has nobody noticed? Or did nobody care? I am confused)

I played this last week and then prepared and GMed it on sunday. Both in High Tier. Here are a few points that remain unclear / feel weird:

- What is the point of having multiple keys of the same color? Are the keys supposed to be single use?
- And while we are at it: What is the point of even having keys of different colors (other than the teleportation circle later on)? From what I can see, it doesn't matter at all if you use the green or red portals. And even if you could use purple, it wouldn't make a difference, either

- How is the encounter against the aquatic enemies supposed to work? The Megalodon is too large to fit through any of the wells in the room. Both my GM and me just handwaved it, but technically, that enemy just doesn't work here

- What is up with some of the DCs in this adventure? If you fail some saves, you are pulled under water and the escape DC is 36! That is a VERY HARD DC for Level 9. But at least in that case you had to fail some saved to get there. Unlike the final encounter, which starts with a DC 35 save for everyone. That is INSANE! Most people at that level will have somewhere around +16-+18 for the save - minute chances of success, and high chances of critical failure. In both runs, we had people go down to that damage

- Are you supposed to be able to disable or even "reverse the polarity" of the focus before combat starts? If so, it would probably trivialize the final encounter. But it would also mean that the final encounter wouldn't actually really happen the way it is described, so it probably shouldn't be allowed.

- During the chase: One penalty (Exit's this way) sound like it auto-clears the obstacle if the group didn't pass on their own. The others don't. And since you have 10 rounds, it wouldn't make sense for all of them to clear that obstacle for you. But is it correct that that particular obstacle is automatically cleared with some minor damage?

- Missing scaling on subsystems - Research as well as chase seem to be lacking any scaling, either for player number or for CP. So a group of 4 will have a MUCH harder time here. That is what scaling should prevent, so the lack of it is kind of weird.

[Monkhound]

The megalodon only makes sense if it's in the black "void" below the platforms and can attack creatures that are on said platform. It that case it would represent a tank deep enough for it to be able to retreat as well.

There's no point in having multiple keys. There being multiple seems to be a failsafe in case they miss one.
The colour of the keys allows to explore the complex via different paths. I actually like that, even though they will end up in the same place eventually.

Traps and hazards tend to have ridiculous DCs because they're meant to be circumvented differently, but even the skill DC to do that is insane. Though to be fair, in this case players can just brute force this one from a distance: 120 damage with no hardness and a weakness to slashing is reasonable easy at that level.
The DC with the final boss encounter is brutal yeah: The DC is extreme, though it seems to be offset by 1- the hazard doesn't do any direct damage after the initial blast, and 2- Yollen doesn't do any offensive actions in round 1. It's still insane since a level 7 character in the high tier is likely to instantly drop to Dying 2.
I don't read the text as that it's possible to change the polarity of the hazard before combat no.

I'm reading the "exit is here" entry as a "free" pass too, though having to be stuck on an obstacle for a full round before a penalty triggers already is a penalty in and of itself.

I agree the lack of party size scaling for both the research and the chase scenes is insane. Having a smaller party really looks like a penalty, which I cannot imagine is the intention.

Running it this weekend for a 5-player low tier party, I'll write a post-mortem.

[Monkhound]

As I'm reading through the low tier encounter, I'm noticing that the low tier damage for the Nahyndrian Focus blast is 4d12 +22 (DC31) compared to the high tier 4d12 +26 (DC35). :O

So as they roll for initiative a level 7 sorcerer (approx. 64 HP) likely has around 50% chance of crit failing and taking an average 96 dmg (between 52 and 124). At level 8 (approx. 72 HP) the likelihood drops to a mere 40% chance of crit failing. Since it's spirit damage, there's almost no way to prevent this damage.

I know this is Cheliax's prototype of a nuke-like weapon, but are these numbers really intended?

[Ascalaphus]

Played this today, with Monkhound as GM.

Yeah, that DC 31 save is a bit bonkers. Looking in the Hazard Creation rules, it's actually 1 point above the extreme DC. Also, those guidelines contain this line:

Quote:

Extreme: While extreme values remain world-class

statistics that are extremely difficult to meet or
exceed, unlike with monsters, almost all hazards
have one extreme statistic because hazards
normally activate only if they have gone unnoticed
or if someone critically failed to disable them.

I don't think that philosophy really applies here; the way the situation is scripted, you're not supposed to disable the hazard before Yollen shows up to activate it. I think going with the Hard DC (26) would have been more appropriate here.