by trystero11

Not an RPG, but an RPG adventure: 2001: A Space Odyssey. I own it, but have never really thought about bringing it to the table (and teaching my group Star Frontiers).

by dava1987

Hello everyone once again. This time I’d like to share my experience playing through the second book in the saga.

I’ll repeat the same disclaimers I made regarding Book 1: I won’t go into mechanical aspects or anything related to the book’s edition. I’ll simply summarize my playthrough, sharing details, decisions, and offering some advice that may be especially useful for those looking to replay the saga. Indeed, this was my second experience with Crown and Tower. For that reason, if you haven’t played this book yet—or haven’t done so with Jessica in your party… DO NOT CONTINUE READING. Spoiler warning!!

Alright then. First of all, I’d like to recap that my original party consisted of Jessica, Amelia, Akihiro, and Tasha. Overall, the run was quite smooth and I didn’t run into major issues. I managed to get through the entire Valley of Bones without cheats. In Book 2, things weren’t very different, with a couple of exceptions [yes, those damn naval battles].

Right from the start, the transition across open seas was kind to my group. I got lucky, I’ll admit it. I even managed to acquire a shipment of spices, which I later sold in Longport for an excellent price. Since I didn’t have Ti’quon with me from the beginning this time, my encounter with the tower mage—while the city was in the midst of a civil war—turned into a successful infiltration mission.

I’ll admit that very early on, I went straight for the Sword of Heaven (+1 to Hit). I think it’s a rather overpowered item, considering it benefits all party members participating in battle. It’s true that I came across it by chance in my first playthrough, but this time I went after it deliberately.

Unlike my previous experience [and I’d dare say unlike most players’ experiences], Jessica was not captured during the siege of Meppen’s Point. Personally, and knowing what could happen, I chose a different route and used a Potion of Might (which grants 3 successes on Fighting checks). To my disappointment, there was no alternative narrative path equivalent to the one triggered by her capture. On the contrary, I felt like I had missed out on an important and well-crafted part of Jessica’s journey. In hindsight, I might have been better off letting her get captured and, if applicable, choosing to have the half-orc baby to explore a different storyline. In any case, I must admit that I missed having that potion later on, when deciding the barony of House Dayne.

Another experience that slipped through my fingers—unexpectedly—was the one involving the doppelganger. In my first playthrough, not only did I encounter it, but it caught me completely off guard. This time, however, my excessive caution led to unintentionally missing the entire episode.

While some aspects were easier in this second run, entering Sonderleign Drops through that cursed forest was absolutely brutal. The sheer number of checks and the ogre fights—each iteration bringing more enemies—left me in pretty bad shape. The ghoul siege had me drinking both my healing potions and burning through spells just to stay afloat. I came so close to death—and to the end of the adventure—that I decided to leave and try my luck with the teleportation circle in the mage Walter Foxe’s tower.

A side note: on the way to Keystone Island, a pirate encounter destroyed my ship and resulted in losing my entire party. I definitely skipped that encounter and broke my no-cheats rule. In my previous run, I recommended spells that help with checks—but unfortunately, when it comes to naval combat, at least until you gain access to better ships, there’s not much you can do.

On another note, Akihiro was brutally and instantly killed after interacting with the diamond inside the glass case. I’ll admit that in situations like that—high risk and uncertainty, with the option to send only one character—Akihiro was my guinea pig. I had already completed his side quest in Book 1, so his death would free up a slot for characters more relevant to later books. Bringing in Lord Ti’quon felt like the most natural choice, as it increased my number of available spell slots.

Finally, I must admit that I had a lot of luck in large-scale battles during this run. However, my duel for the barony of House Dayne turned out to be a rather anticlimactic disaster for poor Jessica. I’ve now set course for Book 3, but I think I’ll take a short break before continuing.

On a different note, I’ve been thinking that after finishing my first journey through the Splintered Isles, I might try a run with four completely new characters while waiting for the remaining books to be published [which I don’t expect anytime soon]. That way, I can explore less common paths—such as helping the King instead of the Everchild in Book 1, and pursuing the alliance with House Bailey in Book 2.

Best regards to everyone.

by argonne

J’ai la version française et c’est bien correct et parfait et j’espère juste que personne viendra chialer de l’immense travail qu’ils ont fait même s’il manque un S à un mot. Dans mon propos je ne vous vise pas particulièrement soyez rassurés.

by MafiaGerbil

An item RPG Item: Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide has been added to the geeklist Northern VA October 2026 Math Trade

by aramis

I never find the voids fruitful... especially when stated as being a core trope.

by MafiaGerbil

An item RPG Item: Litanies of the Lost has been added to the geeklist Northern VA October 2026 Math Trade

by MafiaGerbil

An item RPG Item: Mutant: Genlab Alpha has been added to the geeklist Northern VA October 2026 Math Trade

by MafiaGerbil

An item RPG Item: Star Trek Adventures Core Book has been added to the geeklist Northern VA October 2026 Math Trade

by dragontrainer

Accepted for leaving our dimension, your sacrifice is appreciated.

by dysjunct

It's on a scale.

Allowed: The rules don't explicitly forbid it.

Support (weak): The rules mention the activity. It could be a specifically named skill, or more generally, e.g. "climbing uses the better of the Might or Agility attribute."

Support (average): There is a specific subsystem for the activity. E.g. creating spells in Ars Magica, journeys in The One Ring, or combat in many games. This is one of the ways a game says "this activity is important to the theme or premise of the game." (Note that in the olden days, combat often got a subsystem just because "that's the way it is," so for older designs having a combat subsystem is not a reliable way to determine design intent. Ditto for many other received tropes before the 2000s, unless you were Greg Stafford.)

Support (strong): The reward cycle incentivizes players to engage in the activity. This is an even stronger sign of design intent than a subsystem, although of course many games have both.

The fruitful void is probably an even stronger level of support, but it's a bit orthogonal to the above levels. Also because it is not usually called out explicitly, it is more often discovered through extended play, and might not be obvious with one-shots, or (unfortunately) play by less critical tables.

E.g. it's commonly understood today that by the rules, B/X is a resource management, push-your-luck game. Nowhere in the rules does it say that, but by the rules-as-written, if you don't play the game like that, your PC's career will be very short and you will be eternally stuck in lower levels. (Leaving aside that many groups didn't like that, and started ignoring rules rather than playing a different game.) But if you play RAW and lean into the resource-management push-your-luck themes, B/X becomes very fun and engaging.

Another example would be skill advancement in Mouse Guard. In order to improve a skill from level X to level X+1, you need to use the skill and succeed X times, and use the skill and fail X-1 times. (The character sheet makes it easy to track all this.) This means that as you get better at something, you need to seek out harder and harder tasks -- because the things that used to make you fail are now easy for you. This is because Mouse Guard is about the heroic journey and becoming a legend. The rules don't say this, and there's no mechanic for "heroic journey points" or "legend points." It's the fruitful void; the rules are all around the theme, without the theme being mechanically codified.

by aramis

Ugavine wrote:

Supported, I guess it means there are rules for whatever it is your characters are trying to do.

Star Wars D6 1st edition has no encumbrance rules as far as I remember. It's just GM common sense.

Agreed to both parts... but with the caveat that having the rules isn't enough, they need to be expected to be used.

For example, 2nd Ed WEG SW has a rule that STR-based damages have a maximum... but then doesn't put that on the weapons summary list in the reference section, nor on the GM Screen... nor is it available for all the listed weapons. It doesn't feel like limiting melee damages is actually supported.
Similarly the firing rate limit. It's not on the summaries nor on the GM Screen, either. So is it really supported? Yeah, the heavy weapons in ISB have them, but not all appearances of those do.
And the missing data for the Artillery? Sure, the GM Screen gives 3 artillery pieces ranges and damages - but not fire rates, nor crewing. Not even in the Minis game. Sure doesn't feel supported, even tho there are partial stats.

Supported isn't just a rule for something, but a robust enough rule to use that something.

by susan1430

The Northern VA October 2026 Math Trade is now live! The event's Virtual Flea Market will open on Saturday, 10/17.