I love how it starts after the job is done !
I would run a first hour with a timer, where the crew has to do the cleaning. And pretend that they will be paid depending on how well they performed
Hmm. After reading it, the quantum effects mostly rely on state superposition, and some weird time paradoxes.
If I were to use it, think that I'd try to add some other effects. Such as :
- heisenberg principle : you can't know both the speed and location of an object
- tunnel effect : (related to heisenberg p.) in some case object can randomly cross a wall (including the ship hull 😉)
- wave function collapse : once you interact with an object with which ever quantum effect, the effect suddenly dissapears
- intrication : I don't really know yet how to play that in an interresting way. That's an important effect !
- Maybe some bose-einstein condensate effect ( such as superfluidity . What if it happened to your blood ?)
- particule-wave duality. I am mainly watching at self interference. Different copies of an object (or pc / npc) could interfere and thus disappear / reappear as they move 🤔
EDIT : My thoughts here is how to give tools to the players, so they can actively play with quantum mecanics.
Such an evocative name. I'll read it.
(mention of the module found in this reddit post)
Yes seing the change was fun. We that it worked because the players new that after all this, it would be setting for another game (a revolution). So they cared of what happened.
I have tried with another group, but without the promise to play the revolution afterward. It did not work that well. I think that my method could be improved.
But still it is great to do something out of that initial exploration. It gives some purpose.
Hello ! We had a fun game yesterday with a group of friends. They incarnated a group of credule gas creature (wearing membranes, to avoid constantly mixing with each other), which have been convinced by the dominent sentient specie from their home planet to move away (because it would be "such a nice trip").
As an extra game play mecanism, we used Andrien's idea (post below) to settle population (the blue cubes, on his shot). And after that, we used a mecanism similar to Lay Me Down to play the evolution of the colonies over a few centuries.
It has been pretty chaotic but fun.
Some more personnal thoughts (for me and maybe other DM) about paradoxes in this module :
Safe behaviour :
Their interior have their own timeline, which crosses the Bolero's when they are open. However, except for a failsafe, there is now way to be sure that the objet placed in it has not already been taken / replaced next time a player/NPC opens it
It is ironical though, that getting that ending relies on multiverses : Nazhun telling us how many times her work still needs to be looped, and the rule book implying that she might die too early in any remaining loop.
Maybe we then realise then that things did not happend the way we think they did. We really did the actions, but interpreted their context and result wrong🤔The odd case of Tyro :
**SPOILER**
"But where are all those Tyros ?"
I realise : if Tyro can be over 100 year old, and for exemple was 50 years old on his first loop, where was he when he aged ?
The must be some long periods (months) where there are more than 50 copies of him of all ages in the station... Thus Tyro would account for 1/6th of the station's population !
He should litteraly be everywhere (I imagine a hidden room filled with tyros) or even be able to take over the station. Unless he spent a huge part of his timeline in coffin safes, or has been attacked a lot but time-Leeches and the Kronophage.
As a side note, on this discussion on the safe working, I would give an answer which is slightly different than yours. Here is my take :
"I would consider the safe as having a timeline which is orthogonal to the Bolero's one. Which means, it is totally independent. "Before" and "after" in the safe has no link with "before" and "after" in the Bolero.
The easiest way to play it would be : Next time a player opens the safe (player's time), it finds what has been placed last time (player's time) with no consideration of Bolero's timeline.
A slightly more complex way to play it would be : the safe timeline does not have to be correlated with the player's timeline either... Maybe the object/character has been taken/replaced at another time. How to rule that ? You could let the player decide what they find, roll a dice, or if you (the warden) finds a nice gameplay opportunity decide yourself."
Hello. I have a question about the "Perfect Loop Ending" :
Would you force the players to travel in every remaining loops (100-D100) for Nazhun to finish her research ? Or use some other trickeries ?
Also, do you have any opinion on how "Time is no variable, but fixed" is consistent with her work going through 100 loops ? I understant it as "There is the illusion of parallel timelines, but it is actually the same. Although a bit more complexe that we can comprehend")
However, how to play that ? Sometimes we want player's to solve paradoxes (Boostrap, Grandparent - as if the was only one Bolero's time line), sometimes we want to let go (Nazhun's work going through 100 loops as if there were 100 parallel Bolero's time line ; crossing out existing events...).
I am not sure how to rule that... Any insight ?
Maybe with : "as long as player character's timeline is relatively untouched, it is okay" 🤔
I'll retain :
Edit :
This discussion has good ressources too. (Consolidated description per room + timeline, Maps, portraits)
Ok. I get it.
However, I'd feel the need to give more purpose on the relation between the "Egg" and TSOA, and explain why the egg does not avoid collision. Here are my hacks :
- There is a crater on the Dense Crystal Protusion. It is broken, and thus the egg has lost its sensory of organ. However it discovered that humans (TSOA) could replace the array. And it now relies on them. Actually, they prove so usefull that it started assimilating them as e new organ for "long term preservation" (ie Thelonius Howard). However it did not realise that humans are imperfect (ie Clara's mistake), hence its lack of reaction to avoid the collision.
- Clara not only believes that the players are wrong, but that they actually want to crash the Asteroïd on Verden Prime
Hello ! Interresting situation !
There is one thing though that could be improved: why do the conservationist and the "Egg" don't realise that they are on crash course with the planet ?
I fell that there is something important to dig there, which would improve the storie.
Imagine a room, covered with shelves, with countles groups of 4 stones on placed on a scribbled piece a paper. The issue is not only must a find the perfect stone. He could kill for it. But once he has found it, the dice must play nicely too... So many potentially great stones have been wasted to bad throws in the past...
Some other suggestions :