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A jam submission

The Violet Flame AscendingView project page

A low level high stakes non-euclidean heist written for Into The Odd system in a Martian base.
Submitted by Roseline (@redforroseline) — 2 days, 12 hours before the deadline
Rated by 47 people so far
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Comments

Viewing comments 37 to 21 of 37 · Next page · Last page
Submitted

cool art and strong pitch, but the tesseract thing is a little convoluted and i'm not suere i understand how to run it. That's a problem

Submitted

Great cover & colors within, though the italicized writing was a tad hard to read. I liked how weird the adventure & NPCs were. Nice job!

Submitted

cool art and cover! Very good on this adventure.

Submitted(+1)

Really cool adventure with some great art and great ideas! The non-euclidean aspect was a bit difficult to understand, but I definitely think it's a fun aspect of the space once you get the hang of it!

Developer(+1)

Thank you!!! I did make the adventure to be replayable-friendly, so I think if your table feels like they didn't get it the first time, they can definitely try a second time and maybe find a different approach (there's more than just the intended ending 👀)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

the cover radiates crazy aura on its own but the vibes across the board are good on this one. lots of good details in the keying. this feels on theme for appendix n but brought to life with some pretty out there sauce on top. i appreciate that the NPCs inside each roughly relate to the disguises - i'd probably minimize repeats on those if i ran this to give each player a niche. i also think the artifice of each disguise getting listed in your starting inventory is a great touch. also, the text says martians have 7 fingers, but the king on the cover has 5. is this deep lore for the king's true origin????

this is pretty tough to get a good feel for because the map just makes it near impossible to work out how this might play in action. i do think there are a few places where you could turn the screws some more and really make this pop:

  • the heat rising on the encounter table is a great fit for a heist. i do think it's weird for this heist because you've set up the station as specifically abandoned (due to the spatial stuff i assume). that kind of mechanic would feel really cool if the higher tier encounters represented harsher response, but one of them is environmental and unrelated to your presence. idk, just doesn't sing with the situation you've set up to me. also, if you expand this, i think that kind of escalating die table feels better with more room to breathe (1d4 to d6 to d8 or even larger if you're nasty)
  • obviously the tesseract stuff is a sick concept. i think it doesn't land for me as much as i'd like because it feels pretty disconnected from the rest of what's happening here. it has no clear source and a maybe implied purpose (isolating the prisoner?), and is clearly malfunctioning but can also be fixed by a battery powered remote control? that nobody is using? it's also not mentioned in the intro text, so there's not much intrigue or tension for the players as they go in - it just kinda comes out of left field. in general it's dope as fuck and worth having, just would wanna make sure i nail its introduction to the players if i ran this
  • into the odd was an underutilized choice IMO - it makes the marketing copy feel weird (it's a "low level heist", but into the odd doesn't have levels 🤓☝️), but also it's missing a sick ass magic item to find. i like the violet lantern, but you start with it so there's nothing fun to loot lol. i think you've set up an interesting blank space to reconcile this: the whole deal of the heist is to "swap" the violet flame with the red one, so, i'd love to see what kind of effects keeping the red flame in the lantern might have!

overall, very very cool. the energy here feels incredible. one of a growing number of modules i'd love to see expanded after the jam ends!

Developer(+1)

Alright. This is such an AMAZING reply. I'm going to pay my respect by answering some of the decisions I made. 

I appreciate the Appendix N taste! It was a gamble because prior to this I have literally never known or read any Appendix N literature, and there were a lot of angles to take. Eventually, I decided to just mash every idea that I had onto a giant concept and work it out from there.
I'm glad you noticed the detail for the king :> I wanted to bring it way more examples that essentially the king and the people don't quite look the same but due to constraints, the fingers were a few examples that I managed to fit in.
 

  • This was one of the problems that I faced when designing this adventure. To make a heist adventure, the most important part is the tension represented by the timer itself. I initially wanted to tie the heat rising mechanic onto something like a suspicion level (like in any heist games, if you get to a certain clock/point, you're busted and you failed), but the problem is that due to the small nature of the map, and the fact that the security room is on the first floor and very much accessible, makes it hard to use the heat rising as a security tracker.  Regarding the random encounters, I actually did include a lot of environmental encounters, but throughout my personal playtesting, It was hard to justify the length that the words would've taken to write it down and the fun factor. True, random encounters are a random variable, but in my design prototyping, heist adventures need to not that much of a randomness so players can plan. The dimensional shifting was enough trouble they had to face, if i gave them more danger it would be too much, at least that's what I would think.  And also, my initial table was a d4->d6->d8 yes...but I had to reduce them due to the size...I will make this table even crazier in the expanded version, you can trust me on that.
  • it's true that I didn't include any  real connections on what or why the tesseract space even exist in the first place (I wanted to put a  sample mini lore that the tesseract space was their defense against another species actually that was four dimensional so they couldn't enter two dimensional), but I figured I had two reasons why I didn't put an information. First, I didn't think it was nessecary. In the spirit of Appendix N, you have all this weird magic and science especially when you visit an out of this world civilization. Especially when you're in a hurry, you're not gonna have enough time to piece out everything. In the adventure lore wise, you're not there for a field trip or to understand the martians - you're there to destroy the flame and that's it. I guess an explanation wasn't the biggest urgency here. And second reason, there. isn't. enough. space. Which means that I'll probably add some lore for the expanded version to justify this.
  •  This Into the Odd comment was actually accurate (LMAO). I chose it because it looked simple enough, I've played it like..5 times? I definitely should've researched more on how the system usually works and implement that to my entry. That part about swapping sounds so cool and I'm going to respectfully take note of that idea for the expanded version.


Splendid feedback. I'll definitely note all of them for future improvements. Thank you once again for the gorgeous insights!

Submitted(+1)
I'm glad you noticed the detail for the king :>

ok go off i was really hoping this was the case!!

thanks for the design insights here and in other comments. i'm stoked to see this thing reach its final form once the dust settles! 🫡

Submitted(+1)

Great cover! I really like the concepts here, but I had trouble understanding the non-euclidian aspects at first, which I guess is to be expected. The retro sci-fantasy tone is good fun.

Developer

Thank you! I can't blame you on that part, but you'll be happy to know that I'll be properly explaining the non-euclidian mechanics in the expanded version in a better way (I promise it's not that hard...).

Submitted(+1)

Great details here: the velvet lumens, the red dust. The characters and equipment are McDowallian. Any reason not to have them just be the things they're disguised as? The image of the headless flame is excellent.

I very much like that the violet flame has other uses, and that those uses can harm the user or ruin the device. 

The alien geometry is a nice touch, and I like that most of the encounters aren't combat-oriented... it adds to the atmosphere. 

Developer

Hiya! First of all, thank you very much for the kind praises. To answer your question, I guess at the end of the day, I want the characters to still be the pathetic little humans they are. They're hopelessly fighting a war they could never win, and to make that sense of dread amplified, why not keep the characters the weak humans? At least that was my vision anyways. Practically? It's so that there's a baseline so that other stuff can be weird in comparison, I suppose?

I feel the same way about the lantern too! I wanted give more descriptions to the violet flame, but flat out describing it might be boring, so I opted to make it an item with some risks to be taken. I hope it can add more stakes to the game itself!

Submitted

Makes perfect sense!

Submitted(+1)

First of all, incredible work on this! The cover art is stunning, and the adventure itself feels so thrilling and high-stakes. Using tesseract space is a brilliant idea that brings a fantastic mix of pressure and chaos. If I could ask a quick, small clarification: the 3D map is visually gorgeous, but I got a little confused trying to track the vertical splits and color-coded layers. Perhaps using the same colors on the 3d baloons could make it more understandable at a glance? 

Developer(+1)

Hiya! First of all, thank you very much! Second of all, that is excellent feedback. I contemplated on color coding the 3d maps first, but I feared it would destroy the martian vibes itself. But eventually the vibes are useless if the maps itself can't be read itself, the functionality of the map is...gone. I'll be noting this for my expanded version. Thank you very much for checking my entry!

Submitted(+1)

I LOVE this. The colours are eye-catching but readable, the cover is fun, listing your inspirations is a nice touch.  Took me a moment to parse the maps, but I can only assume my brain cannot handle the non-euclidian geometries, Excellent and inspiring work!

Developer(+1)

Oh my, thank you very much for the kind words. I don't think it's your fault for not being able to understand the maps! I think my delivery of said maps could be improved. Rest assured I will make the maps more readable, both 2d and 3d ones at the expanded version. Thank you once again for checking my entry!

Submitted(+1)

Love a good heist adventure! you have all the tools here to make a fun run through. Really love the work you have done on the map layout. 

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words! I appreciate the layout comment, it took me around 8 paper sketches to finally decide on the final layout 😅, I'm glad you enjoyed it! 

Submitted(+1)

It's such a cool setting, maybe an excursion to Mars is due soon for my adventuring friends! 

Developer(+1)

Hihi, thank you so much!! Mars awaits for your presence!

Submitted(+1)

Reading this gave AI (Acquisitions Incorporated) live play flashbacks where the crowd would scream  RED FLAME, when Chris Perkens would say it. It made redign this adventure a fun time.. 

Developer(+1)

I had to search the clip up, and my god that does sound awesome. Thank you so much for the kind words!

Submitted(+1)

I really like the folding space of the Martian base! Changing map dimensions is really cool and opens lots of possibilities for traversal, and I haven’t seen it in any other adventures before. I wonder what it would be like if the players could change the dimensions with a lever too, and coordinate which dimension they want to be in at a given moment? I also loved the sci-fi vibes, especially with the art and usage of planet-killing machinery.

Developer

Hiya! Thanks for the lovely words! I sorta actually intended the lever to be the spatial control device, but that means the crew can't really fold dimensions other than the one with that room intact. That's why I changed it to a remote control, so that you can change dimensions whenever and wherever :D

Submitted

Oop! I must have missed that entry when I was reading. I agree that making the lever into a controller is way more interesting! Hope I get the chance to try this adventure to see how it goes.

Submitted(+1)

I always love a heist, and this one looks fun! Can I ask what you used to make the map? It has a video game guide vibe to it that I really appreciate XD

Developer

thank you!! I only used blender, and I used kenny's pack as a base models. Tweaked the colors a bit and voila! I appreciate the video games vibes, because my inspirations was a lot of video games too. Thank you once again!

Submitted(+1)

A lot of content was pumped into just a few pages, which is done very well! Like others said, I think the map is the highlight of this adventure. The main nitpick I have is that the text is sometimes hard to read (especially the map's legend), but that's nothing more than a small fix. Really good job :)

Developer

agh! thank you!!! I'll definitely take the account for the text's and the legends, unfortunately I was rushing these two so I didn't have much time to test it out T__T.  Words can't express my gratitude for this comment.

Submitted(+1)

Absolute firecracker of a module. Full of wild ideas that are actually done justice in the execution. Killer.

Developer

this comment made me very happy. This entry was an attempt of me trying to fuse so many ideas at once, and I'm glad my ideas went through. Thank you very very much

Submitted(+1)

This map gave me a headache in the best possible way. Love the idea and definitely wanna run this with into the odd!

Developer(+1)

gosh, thank you for the kind words! Please let me know your experience running it later on, I would love to hear it!

Viewing comments 37 to 21 of 37 · Next page · Last page