Oh for sure, I'll try again tomorrow! 馃槉
EDIT: Got it!
Exeyr
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A member registered Oct 11, 2023
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My group got through the Quickstart adventure (well, not really, the TPKd at the boss) and it was an absolute blast!
The relatively freeform way of creating characters, building them up from lists of traits is pretty unique these days and gives a lot of flexiblity to get creative with builds.
The setting is evocative and the art in the Quickstart is sublime. Really can't wait for the full release of this - feels like the devs really hit a homerun with Chains of Gaelia
It's a neat hack of the old BX stuff. I was originally very confused by what a "Burger" is supposed to be as a player character until it clicked that it's someone from a town.
I like how you've managed to distill things down to d6 rolls - it plays fast and is easy to keep track of. I'm in general not a big fan of having players, not player characters, solve problems, but to be fair, that's just the way that these OSR/BX type games are. Although, it raises the question of stuff like traps - you state that anyone can disarm a trap narratively if they say the right things, but then the Thief also has a specific skill that allows to disarm traps on a roll of 6. There's a couple other dissonances like this in the book in my opinion.
The faction based advancement system is something I've only encountered in a few other games - it's really inspired and I think you've managed to differentiate the factions enough to make it interesting and a worthwhile choice for players.
Combat seems pretty straightforward, but I really wish it wasn't at the end of the book, way after settlement, wilderness, dungeons, underworld and foes. While reading the weapons and armour section, I'd want to know how combat works so I can know what choices to make.
The general sandbox nature of the game is apparent and I'm surprised by how much useful tips and info you've managed to cram into a 49 page book.
This is a really charming game!
The dice step mechanic is really nice and gives a nice little bit of optimizing opportunity for those who like that kind of stuff (me, it's me). The vibe is also great - right amount of taking itself seriously and being silly.
The cultural aspect of the game is really cool, but I kinda wish it was a bit more closely entwined with the rest of the game. Right now it feels a little "background-y".
I promised to leave some thoughts on the game once I'd read through it:
In general, I love the concept! The art is great, but the layout could do with some work to really make it shine.
I'm usually more of a crunchy RPG player, so I'll approach it maybe from a more mechanical point of view. I'll go in order of what I had questions/ideas about:
- Frontline ability - it's written a bit strange, in one place it claims it's a +3 bonus and in the next sentence it says you roll for the bonus?
- Hacker ability - the sentence cuts off in the PDF. It's still understandable, but might be worth fixing
- Strategist upgrade seems a bit too powerful - with how low the armour values and durability of most enemies is, a Strategist with upgraded class ability and a Sniper with bog standard Sniper Rifle can pretty much one-shot half of the bestiary if my math is correct. If that's the intention, sure, but right now it seems like a clear winning combination
- Point division in character creation - is there any minimum and maximum values? Or could I just build a glass cannon with 9 Booster and 9 Targeting System as a Sniper for example?
- DV - I don't really understand from the way that it's written, what it actually does. Let's use the Sniper Rifle as an example - it deals 3D6+3DV of damage. Does that mean that I roll 3D6 and just add a flat +3? If I now upgrade that Sniper once does that mean it now deals 4D6+9 damage? If so, then the damage scaling is absolutely huge - if I'm reading it correctly, the DV bonus I add with each upgrade is double the original? So it scales 3 -> 9 -> 15 -> 18 -> 24 -> 30? This works out to 8D6 + 30 at the final level for an average roll of 54 damage. Add the Sniper ability to deal double damage and it's an average of 108 - only Kraeo, the God of the Sun would survive that for more than one round.
- AV is very low for most enemies (and players), it also ablates as damage is dealt - I'm afraid this will result in a death spiral since dodging is also tied to your AV (+Booster). Also it's a bit unclear what Dodge actually does - is the AV+Booster now the new value that the enemy attack roll has to overcome?
- Range - I might be blind, but I didn't see any movement rates for enemies? Valkyries can move 500m per turn but enemies? Most of their attacks are very low range, so for now it reads like the most reasonable thing is to equip everyone with a Sniper and just keep backing away and taking pot shots.
- Evade/Block - I don't really understand what it does. Do I just say I evade and now I take no damage? Or is it like I theorized under the Dodge point that I just add my Booster value and hope they roll under it? Maybe the combat example could be expanded into more of a "play-by-play" of a few rounds of combat to demonstrate how these systems work?
- The Citadel - it's a really cool concept and I like how you mention the possibility of it being direcyly a part of combat. I think it would make for some interesting encounters.
I'm sorry if my questions/critisism sounds too harsh. You have a really cool system here in the making! It just feels like the math needs some tweaking and mechanics need clarification and expanding on.