Post by Multus in Bridge to Nowhere- A Triangle Agency Mission comments

Bridge to Nowhere- A Triangle Agency Mission » Comments

Viewing post in Bridge to Nowhere- A Triangle Agency Mission comments

Mild spoilers for TA <players/agents>
It's a superb HB supplement! I'm looking forward to playing it with my gang!
With that said, I'm a critic at heart, so I'll leave some nitpicks if you feel curious:
– The images in the PDF are extremely compressed, and it's a shame, because the art is positively lovely!

– I, personally, don't like the way the focus is stated: AFAIK, focus is a feeling the anomaly tries to intensify and spread, not alleviate.

– The language is vivid and rich, but there are some typo's here and there (I can point some of them out, if you'd like me to). The formatting sometimes collides with the main book's conventions.

– I have no idea what a »L.O.O.T. object« or an »ARC team« are supposed to be (there's Anomaly Reality Competency, but I doubt it's that; Wikipedia doesn't provide any relevant insights either). It has a ring to it, though

– 50 loose ends for something that an anomaly might do for 1 chaos (distort)? Seems like a bit too much (especially considering how that's tied to cleaning up the Internet, the greatest anomaly of all). An anomaly's escape costs only 7 loose ends, and 50 might immediately put the team overbudget. I'd lower it to 22 at the very least, since 55 is the turning point (I'm trying to be intentionally vague)

– Confrontation Ver.2's wording is somewhat misleading, IMO. Isn't the THING a minor anomaly? Why would the agents capture it? ConV3 is, respectfully, a mess for all of the reasons above.

Otherwise, this supplement is extensive: it offers a variety of characters and associated mechanics, has relevant details for playwalled content and is full of events to throw at your players. Guidelines for the anomaly's use of its powers is a chef's kiss (on the lips). The best part is that everything is organized quite neatly, so I think it'd be very easy to use during play.

VitorRC20 days ago

What do you think would be a good focus?

ARC Team refers to Wuhan-Baxter's Asset Recovery and Containment Team. It is explained in mission Zbarro#641 in the supplement The Vault and in the The Company RPG I think.
I think L.O.O.T. is homebrew. I did some searching on Discord, and I believe they are objects influenced by the energies of an Anomaly. Logically Out Of Touch objects.

Multus12 days ago (2 edits)

I'm a bit of a uhm achshually guy, and I like to know a project's dependencies even for books, ahaha.

It's not really about the wording or a specific choice of focus for the idea. I just think that TA as a whole is about how the mismatch between wants and beneficial things (for lack of a proper succinct wording) can lead to great strife and suffering, how the foolishness of someone with great capabilities can lead to ruin, how ideas take hold and evolve under pressure etc. A corrupted ghost with unfinished business (I've read the supplement, and I'm aware I'm simplifying somewhat) doesn't scratch the itch for me. It's an otherwise cool idea, it's creative, and I see the work has been put in, so I don't see myself messing with the creative vision: it is splendid for what it is. Does that make sense? It's an episode of Kim Possible, where I expect Ergo Proxy, or smth.

P.S.

I have fever rn and my friends told me that this comment is mean. I'm a bit grumpy, so, please, take this with a grain of salt

Sporadic Dialogue20 days ago(+1)

Hey thanks for writing in, I don't know WHAT happened to this PDF during the export as earlier tests I did didn't have the image compression but also included a couple links (such as an explanation as to what a L.O.O.T. Object is.

Focuses can be a response to any human emotion, and can be interpreted different ways: Someone who's uncomfortable about the rain might equally create An anomaly that makes them more uncomfortable, vs. An anomaly that provides relief by getting them an umbrella. In this instance, the desire for the project to be done is what manifested the anomaly, rather than say... annoyance that it wasn't finished yet. (I specifically wanted to create an anomaly that didn't want to spread infinitely with this one).

Correspondingly, the Anomaly is stated to have a dual nature: The Harbinger and the drafting tool Case. Both are the same entity, so interacting with the Harbinger allows you to talk down the Anomaly. Likewise, there's some oddities with how this Anomaly acts/functions that's specifically meant to contrast how other Anomalies work (which I figured was explained in the aftermath and was intended to set up future missions. That said, if it's not clear, I can fix that.)

The 50 loose ends for the bridge's appearance are intended as a mini cleanup mission as one of the challenges the Agents have to face. They're supposed to contract a story. (Also this is well in line with the revised cleanup procedures. Thousands of people are talking/speculating about the bridge's appearance, it's kind of a lowball)

Multus12 days ago (1 edit)

Cool, thx! (idk Y, but the little red hammer for demerits and the commendation sign on page 7 are still scuffed; the links are ok, tho)

That makes sense, it absolutely does, but as is, the wording doesn't match your intention, IMHO. Its focus doesn't match the feelings anomaly's actions would produce in the best-case scenario.

I assume that agents' gear interacts with H the same way it would with any other minor anomaly, but Ver.2 suggests that it may be captured to the same effect as the main anomaly. Well, it seems to me to be that way, at least.

It makes sense in-game, but it's a nuke you have to drop on the agents. Besides, a well-known community leader disappearing is some 12 LE, which isn't a lot. Idk, I'll trust you on this one.

itch.io

Viewing post in Bridge to Nowhere- A Triangle Agency Mission comments