Basements & Beards- Analogue Gaming Thread

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Shadow of the Demon Lord continues to be the superior D&D with one of its newest adventures:

SpoilerShow

If you think referencing Superman II is weird, I'll have you know that Labyrinth is effectively canon in the default setting.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Girl by Moonlight (by Evil Hat)

Core Systems Part 2

In this part, we're gonna deal with the rest of the rules - including getting the sads and turning into PUR.
I sure hope you like scatterbrained rules sections that could've probably benefited from a couple editing passes, 'cause I'm pretty sure we'll continue to get those.

RiffingShow

Stress and Eclipse

PCs are overly emotional and suffer "damage" from all sorts of petty bullshit.

Van delivers a report to her commanding officers. They question her every decision, and doubt her loyalties.

Not that that will ever have any consequences, seeing how the entire playset revolves around Van being a mecha pilot working for a military that's mean and evil and shit.

Dylan rolls for Van’s obligation and gets a 5. Dylan marks 6 minus the result in stress on his sheet, which means 1 stress for Van. She endures the lectures and interrogations silently, her face stoic and expressionless.

She would later cope and seethe on Bluesky.
And this is how stress damage is done? Good we're first introduced to this in an example of play and not in the actual rules.
Also dayum, get those Saving Throws up asap. I don't think you can afford rolling too many 1s and 2s.

Hawk confronts Canis after class—she’s sure Canis is a snitch, and is trying to get him to stop.

I'd be hilarious if she sucked at bossing people around. I mean, she only looks like a Space Marine that loves chicken tendies a little bit too much.

Dylan rolls Hawk’s express, and gets a 2.

Bev describes the consequences of missing the roll: Canis hears Hawk out, but has already given his report to his MCP handler, Cpl. Lynx. Dylan doesn’t want this to happen, so he rolls to resist using Hawk’s stars attribute.

Oh, so you can just do a Saving Throw to try and no-sell consequences you just caused? That sounds like it should've come up before.
But then again, Saving Throws have technically not been explained yet. God is this organization a mess.

He rolls a 4, which means Hawk takes 2 stress. She still does not succeed at her initial intent. Instead, Hawk can tell Canis is lying—he has not reported yet, but he will if Hawk does nothing to stop him.

Just give him an atomic wedgie.

Also I think I know why this game keeps pushing for making every "dramatic" and "challening": Since this game doesn't really have difficulty modifiers, every source of stress needs to be somewhat equal.
You can't just do stuff like "It's just some stranger calling you fat. You get +1 die" or "The entire school is pointing at you and chanting you deadname. -1 die". The only thing that can influence your potential stress damage is the saving throw you end up using.
This is a bit like playing a round of Call of Cthulhu where every source of Sanity damage is 5d10. Doesn't matter if you're bumping into a dude from Innsmouth, or having a staring contest with Azathoth. It's 5d10 either way.

Eclipse

It's like symbolic, and shit.

Even the protagonists have moments where they do not live up to their heroic identity.

That's tragic and all, but all these examples haven't really given us a good view of those "heroic identities".

All the ways they have been taught by their society to hate themselves, and doubt their own truth, compromise them from the inside.

That pesky society, always holding use back
Are you sure this is about magical girls and not Internet Nobodies?

They indulge their worst impulses, or push themselves to dangerous extremes, struggling with the impossible demands the world has placed on their shoulders.

Of course it's that pesky society's fault for you turning into a self-destructive PUR-type, just because you had one too many marching band classes

When you fall into eclipse, your inner turmoil and self-destruction manifests. Each playbook has a unique When you eclipse prompt that describes the mindset that takes hold of your character while they are in eclipse. It also includes an escape clause, which will need to be satisfied in order to return to normal.

I wonder where the writers got this shit. It doesn't even appear to be supernatural or anything. You're just having a philosophical temper tantrum.

Eclipse shows us a reflection of the protagonists, but through a broken mirror. A fractured and dysfunctional counterpoint to their identities that threatens to bring about their downfall. It also shows a possible future, a version of reality in which our heroes have turned away from their destiny, and the world is left unredeemed.

It's, like, deep, and maybe even symbolic.

Fawn is running through the university grounds, desperately seeking a place to hide from the campus police.

You know how Sailor Moon was about saving people from monsters? Yeah, fuck that. This is about getting caught by the pigs in cosplay after hours because you were covering for your buddies who are doing some kind of Scooby-Doo treasure hunt.

Anya rolls Fawn’s conceal, but misses the roll. Bev describes the consequences of failure: “Fawn finds a place to hide near the metro station, and lays low for a bit. She thinks she’s safe, but just as she emerges from hiding to hurry to the metro, she rounds a corner straight into a group of cops, who take her in for questioning.”

Oh, so they only take her in for questioning? It's so nice of this fascist police city-state to not have police brutality.

“Oh, I don’t think that will end well for me…” Anya replies. She looks down at her sheet, she’s almost at maximum stress, she’s used all her transcendent actions, and she’s separated from her friends. “I guess I have to resist that, but I’ll need to roll perfectly.”

Is this gonna be like one of those cases where the cops arrest some bitch who proceeds to freak the fuck out?

Rolling for Eclipse

So when you're about to go full PUR, you have to make a save using your lowest saving throw, as if this game didn't hate min-maxing enough already.

• 1-3: LMAO, get fucked.
• 4-5: LMAO, get fucked (unless another player decided to help you out)
• 6: You're save for now.

If you don't go crazy you're fine for now, but every additional instance of stress will force another save.
If you manage to pull off a critical success, you actually recover stress, and everyone gets some buff based on the saving throw, feels a bit random.

Anya rolls to resist Fawn’s arrest and gets a 1. So much for rolling perfectly! Fawn already has 7 stress, which means marking another 5 will more than fill her stress track. Anya fills the track to 9 stress, and then rolls for eclipse. She rolls her lowest attribute, moon, and gets a 3, which means Fawn is in eclipse.

If, instead, Anya had rolled a 6 for her eclipse roll, Fawn would hang on at the brink of eclipse. Her stress would remain at nine, and Anya would have to roll again the next time Fawn takes stress.

So shit hits the fan as soon as you have 9 stress? So basically two instances of stress damage can be enough to fuck you over if you roll like shit.

Falling into Eclipse

When you fall into eclipse, read the prompt out loud, including the escape clause.

This will probably not get annoying at all given enough sessions.

This will help everyone at the table to understand the sudden shift in behaviour, and remind them of how they can help your character escape eclipse.

Because fuck having to figure shit out using roleplaying in this narrative roleplaying experience

Anya reads her eclipse prompt out loud to the other players. “Who you really are clearly isn’t enough; only the mask is worthy of their love. You reject all aspects of your everyday self, and embrace the most superficial aspects of your persona. Give them what you know they want — effortless beauty, and extravagant drama!”

Friendly reminder that you have to read this shit out loud every time your character can't even anymore.
And just as a little comparison, the Stress Explosions from Maid RPG:


Concise, and to the point. This isn't some overly flowery gobbledygook that your socially awkward target audience can never properly grasp and/or act upon.

Dylan shakes his head, smiling ruefully. “Oh great, an even more melo- dramatic Midnight Quill… Hawk is going to love that.”

Oh, I bet he loves it when the attention whore becomes an even bigger attention whore

Anya shoots Dylan a look, then continues on, reading the second half of the prompt.

Anya will remember that.

“You escape eclipse when someone shows you the truth of their heart, and you reveal your identity to them. They add a promise about keeping your secret.” Nobody says anything to this, but Anya can see her fellow players thinking about the escape clause, and how they can help Fawn see that she’s a worthy friend, with or without her mask.

More flowery gobbledygook.
And what is there to think? This shit basically takes over the narrative and tells everyone what has to happen in the next few scenes.
Or maybe not? I mean, WTF happens if you just ignore this temper tantrum?

When in Eclipse

Being in eclipse does not mean that your character turns on their friends or suddenly becomes a villain.

That would be pretty weird tbh, considering this doesn't appear to be some kind of magical corruption. You're just PUR, or @DepressionMuse.

Though it may push you towards fatalistic choices or reckless behaviour, you are still in control of your character’s choices and actions. Being in eclipse is an opportunity to have your character act out, cause drama, or say things they are normally too calm or shy to say out loud.

"I still enjoy Harry Potter."

Embodying your eclipse prompt earns you xp at the end of session, and you may choose to do this regardless of whether your character is in eclipse or not.

If going full retard is the only way to earn XP I'm gonna lose it.
And wait, I can just be PUR all the time? But then stress doesn't really matter, does it?

When not in eclipse, you can hint at your charac- ter’s worst impulses, calling attention to the behaviours and feelings described in the prompt. Save the more overt expressions of this inner turmoil for when your character is in eclipse.

Ah, so it's the difference between overacting and hyperacting.


Somehow, I don't think this is different from her normal behavior.
Also I thought that eclipse prompt of hers was about chewing the fuck out of the scenery?

Characters can be in eclipse through all phases of play, and remain in eclipse until the escape clause is satisfied.

I feared as much.

Fawn’s eclipse prompt is about her fearing she cannot live up to her heroic alter ego, Midnight Quill. Anya decides that Fawn will do something dramatic and foolish to prove herself a hero, and waits for the right moment. Meanwhile, she spends all of downtime being overly dramatic and aloof, but everyone is too busy to notice Fawn’s angst. Typical!

They will notice it once she starts her school shooting.

While you are in eclipse you use stress in reverse, erasing accumulated stress on your sheet any time you would normally take it. You do not clear stress or your transcendence track at the end of a mission. If an effect causes you to recover stress while in eclipse, increase your stress by that amount instead.

Of course this sticks even after the mission. It is only over until Fawn has had her contractually obligated spotlight scene, dammit.

Being in eclipse gives you power, effectively letting you use your accu- mulated stress a second time. This power comes at a cost, however, as in this state your character’s dysfunctional impulses start to over- shadow their virtues.

If you actually roleplay it like that.

It also brings risk—if your stress ever reaches zero while you are in eclipse, choose one of the following for your character:

• They can take no more, and they die.
• They lose their magical powers and return, heartbroken, to mundane life
• They betray their companions and side with their adversaries

Make a new character, who will join the group after the current mission ends. (For more on losing characters, see page 76.)

Amazing. So if no one gets you out of your temper tantrum by appeasing you to your exact specifications, you lose your character because...

• ... they straight up die. Somehow. I'm sure plastic bags are ropes will be involved
• ... you lose your powers, somehow,
• ... you become evil. Somehow. Though I'm not sure if that means you'll join the Not-Dark Kingdom (which are barely a thing in the example), or the cops.

LMAO. I thought this was a genre emulation or something. Though only Cure Moonlight comes to mind atm (for she is Best Girl), I'm pretty sure there are more magical girls who lost and then regained their powers than there are those that lost them and then just fucked off.
And why do you treat joining the bad guys as something even remotely permanent? Even Sailor Moon had characters turn evil for a short while, and you could make multiple teams out of Cures who started out as vilains.

If fucking Fawn joins the fucking cops, every fucker at the table should be thrilled at the prospect of dramatic redemption arc. Imagine the tears. The epic beatdowns. The euphoria as Evil Fawn stops herself from finishing off her fat nakama and turns good again.
But no. Good Fawn doesn't exist anymore. Go make a new character.
Fucking bullshit.

Escaping Eclipse

Each playbook has a way to escape eclipse detailed below the eclipse prompt. The protagonists cannot do this alone, though. They will need support and care from their friends to find themselves once more.

They have to have their emotions validated in the correct way.
Each and every time they go PUR.

This can happen in the midst of a tense action sequence, or in the relative safety of downtime.

And since you can do it anytime, I guess it technically is without consequences if everyone goes about to fix you up ASAP.
Fuck, it can even be a good thing if you let the character burn that stress first.

It is often helpful to discuss what escape might look like for a character in advance, given the circumstances of their eclipse.

All aboard the railroad!

Sometimes escape will require an action roll, but it could also happen as a result of dialogue between characters, or some other fictional circumstance that feels right to the players. Be flexible when assessing what counts as satisfying the escape clause.

Kissing. It'll probably involve kissing.

Later, Hawk saves Midnight Quill from certain death at the claws of Caspian Hulme.

Which we will not get into detail because who the fuck cares about monsters are actual villains in a magical girl story?

There is a brief moment in which the two of them are alone amidst the rubble of the excavation site.

*porn music intensifies*

Dylan describes Hawk helping Quill to their feet, and the two of them locking eyes while Hawk says “I don’t know what I’d do if someone got you before I could.” She smiles, and lets Quill go, despite her long standing grudge against the masked meddler. Anya sees Dylan subtly setting her up—Fawn can escape eclipse when someone shows her the truth of their heart, and she reveals her identity to them.

Very subtle indeed, and not half-assed at all
And I thought you guys are supposed to plan this shit in advance?

Grinning, she describes Midnight Quill removing her mask, and pulling a stunned Hawk in for a kiss!

God, this is lame. And gay.


And don't forget this all happened thanks to the police.

Consequences and Harm

Where is that blood leaking out from?

Aka the bad shit that can happen if you fuck up a roll. Besides stress, I guess.
The possible consequences are:

• Reduced effect
• Complication
• Lost opportunity
• Worse position
• Harm

Depending on the circumstances, the director might assign one or more consequences as part of evaluating a roll. They make this assessment using the fictional circumstances, the guidelines of the series in play, and the overall tone established by the group during play.

"Have the GM figure shit out."

Thanks, book. You're a great help as always.

The position the roll was made at, and the roll result also factor into this assessment. A desperate action will have more severe consequences than a controlled or risky action. A 1-3 result will carry more severe consequences than a 4/5 result on the same roll. It’s a judgement call that takes a little practice to master.

Thanks for having three distinct degrees of failure that still boil down to GM fiat.

Surt draws the leviathan’s attention to make an opening for Himna to get in close. Anya describes Surt flying past the leviathan’s head at top speed, thrusters flaring white hot as he tries to draw it into a debris field. Anya is choosing to roll flow for the action. Bev says that it sounds like a risky action, with standard effect. Anya rolls and gets a 4, a partial success. This means Surt succeeds in his intent, but his action will also have negative consequences.

I'm sure nothing bad will come out of reenacting the T-Rex distraction scene from Jurassic Park with a Tyranid hive ship.

Reduced Effect

Basically you don't manage to accomplish quite what you wanted.

If you tried to rescue a friend who was drowning, maybe you’ve gotten them to the water’s surface, but not yet back to shore.

Like so.

Maybe someone accepts your offer of cooperation for now, but will watch for opportunities to betray you later.

I see this game supports old-school hireling rules.

Your impassioned plea stalls the monster, but does not redeem its heart as you had hoped.

The fuck does that even mean?
Also if Pretty Cure taught me anything, it's that the only way to redeem a monster involves blowing it the fuck up.

In more "mechanical" terms, this means your "effect level" is reduced by one.
Note that effect levels are also purely GM fiat.

Bev might choose to reduce Surt’s effect level as a consequence, meaning Surt only had limited effect. Instead of completing the action in one step, making an opening for Himna will require completion of a clock. Bev makes a new 4-count clock called “The Diversion” and marks two segments. Someone else will have to finish what Surt started.

Great. More rolls means more chances for complications!

And if you're wondering why we're having a "4-count clock" that's already halfway filled in: These games love tracking shit using clocks, and 4 segments is the absolute minimum these clocks have. Because fuck drawing a circle that's cut in half I guess.


These arms look pretty silly.

Complication

This consequence means new or worse dangers. It might be immediate— maybe a protagonist is separated from their friends, someone important sides with your adversaries, or the room catches fire.

Does it have to make sense for the room to catch fire?

The director might choose to advance a clock, instead, to track consequences that extend into the future. Maybe there is a clock for a bridge that is on the verge of collapsing, and the director advances it one step. This will be a problem soon, but for now the bridge holds and the protagonists can try to accomplish their goals before it collapses.

Have I mentioned yet that this book has yet to actually explain clocks to us?
And can you imagine this book allegedly had two editors?

A serious complication is more severe — a protagonist is surrounded by foes, a trusted friend betrays the group, the room they’re in catches fire and the doors are all blocked.

Maybe I'm getting a bit hung up on the burning room, but it's been the closest this book has gotten to producing peak.

Whatever the details of a given complication, it should not invalidate or cancel out the effects of a successful roll.

I sure hope whatever you tried to accomplish did not hinge on the room not spontaneously combusting.

If the protagonist rolled a 4/5 while convincing the ghost of a queen to help them, do not have the queen be plotting their downfall all along. The protagonist succeeded, so the queen will help them, though maybe she demands a favour in return.

I like how the "reduced effect" includes "will totally try to betray you later", but the "complication" does not.

Bev could choose to add a complication. Surt is going faster than he can handle through the debris field, he can feel pieces of debris ripping through the hull of his engine. Warning lights flare in the cockpit, showing the extent of the damage, his engine can’t take anymore of this. Bev tells Anya to remove a point of strength from her engine.

I assume "engine strength" is a playset thing? 'Cause I have no fucking clue what that means.

If Anya had rolled a 1-3 instead, Bev might choose a serious complica- tion. Surt collides with a huge chunk of debris he somehow didn’t see, and loses all sense of orientation as his engine careens into the debris field. The cockpit goes dark. He will have to get his engine back online, and navigate out of the debris field to get back to his friends, who are still struggling against the leviathan without him.

But how much does this fuck up your engine?

Lost Opportunity

This consequence means that the situation changes. Whatever approach was used before will no longer work.

This sounds like a straight-up failure.

You might still be able to accomplish your original goal, but it will have to be by some new means.

Which probably means more rolls aka opportunities to fuck up.

Maybe you tried pleading with a monster to remember its human life, but you discover that its heart is closed, and it can’t remember. If you want to redeem it now, you’ll have to try another way, maybe by empathising with it to learn what pain caused its heart to close.

Will we ever get an actual example of this "monster heart redemption" thing? 'Cause all this talk about monster therapy sessions is starting to weird me out a little.

Maybe Surt loses his opportunity. The debris field is too dense, and his engine refuses his controls and veers away. He’ll need to think of a different distraction, or change his approach.

Your engine sucks.

Worse Position

This consequence means the protagonists’ actions make the situation more volatile. This isn’t a failure, nor is it a success yet.

So I guess the ghost queen isn't ready to betray you just yet, but she's thinking about it?

You can try again, and re-roll your action at a worse position.

Aka you will totally make shit even worse.

This consequence creates a sense of an unravelling situation.

If you say so.

While a mission might open with a controlled position, this consequence can take it to risky, and then up to desperate as the protagonists get themselves further and further beyond their limits.

This sounds very slapstick-y.

Bev might put Surt in a worse position. A simple fly-by isn’t enough, Surt will have to collide with the leviathan to get its attention and change its course. Anya can try this new approach, and re-roll the action at desperate. If not she will have to abandon this line of action.

How about shooting at that thing instead of tackling it? It's a giant Tyranid hive ship. I'm sure it can tank a shot or two form whatever the fuck you're armed with.

In the case of a partial success, their action still succeeded (so re-rolling wouldn’t make sense) but the situation is made dangerous by some new problem or threat. This means subsequent actions will be in worse positions.

I think I would've like it if all of these consequences had a dedicated paragraph for WTF a failure or partial success means.

Harm

Could you explain to me again why you want to befriend this thing?

This is the other kind of "damage" besides stress.

This consequence means lasting emotional or physical injury, and possibly death. When a protagonist suffers harm, it is recorded in their playbook at the appropriate level. Harm is recorded as a word or short phrase that describes the nature of the harm.

So these are basically wounds/injuries, with the descriptive shit making this one of the last vestiges of the Fate RPG.

Also note how this includes physical and emotional injuries. This wouldn't be a narrative RPG if you couldn't die from hurt feelings.

Bev could assign harm. The strain and fear caused by Surt’s reckless flight through the debris field might take an emotional toll, leaving him with level 1 harm ‘shaken.’ If the tone calls for something more significant, maybe Surt saw visions of his own doom as the g-forces pushed him to near blackout during his manoeuvres, and he suffers level 2 harm ‘fatal visions.’

Okay, I might get "shaken", but I will refuse to accept spontaneous deadly premonitions at my table.
Unless this makes sense for the playbook, but fuck if I know what this guy's deal is.

If Anya had rolled a 1-3, instead of a 4/5, Bev might make the harm more severe. The debris which had damaged Surt’s engine might instead pierce the cockpit, and cause level 3 harm ‘shrapnel wounds.

I hope that cockpit is self-sealing, 'cause I'm pretty sure you'd just die shortly after otherwise.

Speaking of level 3, that's how many different levels there are, each with delicious downsides:

• Level 1: Your effect levels drop by one, which isn't too bad since effect levels are GM fiat anyways.
• Level 2: -1 die in your pool. Holy shit, a pool modifier at last!
• Level 3: You're incapacitated. Except it's a bit more confusing:

The protagonist cannot perform action rolls, unless they receive an assist, or push themselves. In either case, the protagonist does not receive the extra die for their action roll. They also need help to move, are not fully aware of their surroundings, and will struggle to do anything at all until their condition improves.

Sounds more like you're very drunk, tbh.

Later, Surt needs to leave the cockpit and throw himself through the void to board the ICARUS. Anya goes to roll Surt’s flow, which has 1 dot, and Bev points out that Surt has level 2 harm. He is still being plagued by visions of his own doom, so Anya will roll one less die. Anya describes Surt hastily going through emergency decompression procedures in a cold sweat, before gritting his teeth and hurling himself across the gap. Anya effectively has zero dice for this action, so she rolls two dice and keeps the lowest.

LMAO. Nigga, why even bother? You fucked.

We also find out that you have two slots each for level 1 and 2 harm, and if you receive harm while the proper slots are already filled, you have to "upgrade" that harm to whatever level has a free slot. This is almost like Fate RPG.

Getting confused one more time would knock you out here.

Level 4 harm exists, and is basically death. It usually can only happen if you've warned everyone beforehand that it is a possible consequence - or if someone gains a second helping of level 3 harm and the GM decides to be a dick.

• Lesser (level 1): drained, scared, confused, scraped, bruised, embarrassed
• Moderate (level 2): exhausted, panicked, cut up, mortified, disgraced
• Severe (level 3): impaled, catatonic, crushed, heartbroken, hopeless
• Fatal (level 4): eaten, drowned, lost forever, utter despair

I call bullshit on "utter despair" being a level 4. PUR has that like twice per week.

Links and Harm

So if someone you have a link with has their henshin going on, you can spend that link to ignore a single instance of harm as long as the henshin lasts.
Aka ignore being eaten with the power of friendship?

Anya is about to make her roll at zero dice, when Claire interrupts, “Hey, I’ve got a link with Surt, I’ll let you ignore that harm!” Claire crosses off the link with Surt on her sheet. “I think that Surt is about to hurl himself into space when he hears Himna reassuring him over the radio. You’re going to make it, Surt. Just take another breath, and focus. You can do this.”

Why do all of these emotional moments feel so half-assed?

Anya breathes a sigh of relief, now she can ignore that harm tag and roll one die, which gives her much better odds of succeeding.

Well, that's still a 50% chance of getting fucked with no upsides.

Recovering from Harm

You can recover from harm by filling the harm recovery clock on your
sheet.

Oh, that's what that weird heart thing was. Okay.

Basically for every 4 segments you fill up, you remove all level 1 harm, and downgrade the remaining harm down one level. Sounds like quite a bit to shuffle around, but okay.

During the next downtime phase, Himna helps Surt recover. Claire rolls Himna’s empathy and gets a 6. This advances Surt’s recovery clock by 4 segments, which completes the clock. His only harm is level 2 ‘fatal visions’ which Anya adjusts to level 1 ‘shaken’.

Fuck your deadly premonition.

Resisting Consequences

We finally get a formal introduction of that "no-selling a consequence" bit that happened in an example over 10 pages ago. God, this fucking editing.

Basically you can always choose to go "Nuh uh", roll for stress damage, and then the consequence just doesn't happen.

Trigger Warning: scary monsterShow

Is this the kind of shit whose "heart" you want to "redeem"? Also what's up with the backgroudn in this Meguca playset?

Or maybe I spoke to soon when I said "no-selling":

Generally, resistance will reduce the severity of consequences, but not eliminate them entirely. If you were to resist fatal harm, for example, you might reduce it to severe harm instead. Or if a complication resulted in the advancing of a clock by 3 segments, it might only advance 2 or 1. In other situations, a reduction of severity might not make sense, and the consequence is all or nothing.

And you want me to risk up to 5 stress damage for this shit?

Let’s say the consequence being resisted is that a monster knocks you off a ledge. When you resist, the director might say that you avoid the consequence completely—you dodge the monster’s swipe, or deftly keep your footing.

Maybe instead, they say you resist it in part—the monster shoves you towards the ledge, but you somehow keep your feet and don’t fall off it. It’s between you and your friends, you’re separated and in a bad spot, but at least you’re still standing.

Fucking GM fiat rears its ugly head again.

The decision whether to reduce or avoid consequences completely is really about the overall tone of the series. More light-hearted fiction might see the characters avoid danger completely.

Why? If it's light-hearted you want slapstick nonsense to happen, no matter what.

As with setting position and effect, there is a larger conversation happening between all the players when we talk about resisting consequences. What makes sense, and feels authentic to the fictional world? What reflects the game’s tone? There are no hard and fast rules for this—though the series playset provides some helpful guidance — instead it is a flexible, ongoing consensus that emerges through play.

Aka "You figure shit out".

The director also has the option of assigning multiple consequences. Sometimes this will follow naturally from their description of conse- quences from a roll. Other times, this may be a conscious decision based on the circumstances—maybe they can’t think of a severe consequence and so introduce multiple smaller ones, or a desperate roll is missed at just the wrong time. In situations where the director assigns multiple consequences, the protagonists may choose which ones to resist, and make rolls for each.

So if the GM feels like a dick, he can just introduce as many consequences as he feels like.

While Fawn distracts campus security, Hawk and Raven make their own run to the relative safety of the nearby night-district.

It's safe 'cause the cops have shot all the troublemakers.

Dylan and Claire make a desperate group flow roll, which goes terribly. Bev describes the consequences: “You’re both running as fast as you can, maybe a little panicked at that, and one of you… I guess Hawk since you’re leading. Right as you reach the edge of campus, there’s a major street, but it’s late so people are driving fast. You burst out into the street, still convinced that you’re being chased, and this car comes out of nowhere. Bam!”

"Get fucked, Hawk!"


Remember when this was supposedly about magical girls?

Dylan puts a hand over his mouth “Yikes! That’s messed up! Is Hawk okay?”

“Not really, I’m thinking level 3 harm? The car sort of clips Hawk and knocks her to the pavement, you’ve probably broken some bones. The car just speeds off into the distance, and you’re both left there, silhouetted by the street lights as the sound of its engine fades into the distance.”

LMAO. What did you do to piss off Bev so much, Dylan?

Dylan is taken aback at first, then he remembers that he can do some- thing about it. “Hold on, I want to resist that!”

(I'd personally be a bit more pissed if the GM decides to have my PC run over by a surprise car. That's some literal "Rocks fall, everyone dies" kind of shit.)

Bev replies “Sure. I think you can drop this to level 2 harm. Maybe Hawk sees the car coming right at the last second, and manages to roll over the hood. You’ll need to roll sun since this is a violent consequence.”

How gracious of you, Bev

“Yeah, that makes sense, and it’s my best attribute!” Dylan rolls 2 dice, and gets a 4. He marks 2 stress on his sheet, as well as the level 2 harm ‘hit by a car’.

Dylan will remember that.

Protecting your Allies

This looks like both of them are gonna die. I'd certainly love to see her shove that fatass to safety.

Basically you can decide to "protect" someone by tanking the consequence in their stead.

Instead of Hawk resisting the consequence, Raven could protect her:

Claire proposes to Dylan, “Hey what if I resist the car hitting Hawk instead, like Raven yanks her back at the last second or something?”

That's not what the picture shows, but fine, whatever.

“I like that more! Hawk likes to think she’s the one that saves people, I bet she’ll give Raven a hard time about this later, once they’re safe.”

"Likes to think she's the one that save people"? Now you're just straight-up mean, Bev.
Also this is (allegedly) about magical girls. What the fuck else is Hawk gonna do?

Bev reminds Claire that Raven is protecting Hawk, so it will be Raven that ends up taking the hit. Claire shrugs and picks up the dice, she likes this turn of the story, a little harm is more than worth it.

Claire don't give a fuck.

She gets very lucky, and rolls a critical success, which means Raven recovers one stress, instead of taking any. “Nice! Raven’s pretty tough, apparently.”

Bev nods. “She is, but that just saves you some stress—she’s still taking the harm. It’s level 2 now, since you resisted it, so maybe something like a fractured wrist? You pull Hawk out of the way, but can’t stall your own momentum and end up bouncing off the side of the car as it whips past, horn blaring.”

Bev got her victory, anyways.

Armour

Another bit of rules that finally gets explained.

It's not very exciting, though. Basically once per mission, during your henshin, you can decide to resist a consequence for free. Yay~

Raven just took level 2 harm protecting Hawk from being hit by a car. Raven is still transcended, so Claire spends her armour to reduce the harm to level 1. Just as Raven collides with the car, ghostly armour flashes into being around her, and then fades away. She meets Hawk’s eyes, shocked that they both escaped relatively unharmed.

Wait, your transcended? Then why don't you have your dumb breastplate in that picture?

Special Armour

You can get this from special abilities. It's like another instance of armour, but you can only use it in situations described in the special ability. Honestly doesn't sound very "special".

Loss & Death

Loss is a necessary outcome for tragic stories. In this game, the protag- onists will often face setbacks and defeat, doubly so if they are unwilling to risk everything to accomplish their goals. If they push themselves a little too hard, though, or take too many chances when the stakes are high, they risk losing themselves.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

They might be consumed by their own inner turmoil, falling so deeply into eclipse as to become a different person, perhaps even becoming an adversary to their former allies.

I think that's what happened to Spoony during his infamous meltdown.

Should a protagonist fall, make space for the gravity of that event. Whatever was at stake in that moment is made all the more signifi- cant if someone sacrificed themselves for it. These kinds of events are transformative to the narrative, and can signal a dark turn in the story.

One could say it kinda dampens the mood.

For the players at the table, permit everyone a break to reflect, and
grieve. Be conscientious of the emotions of your fellow players, and if
necessary prioritize them over the immediacy of the game.

"Let us all honor our fallen..."

Remember that harm is not limited to physical consequences — a character can suffer emotional harm to the point of being lost to the story, just as surely as if they had died.

"Dylan. Get out of here. You're a character is a muggle! You don't exist any more."

We also get the rules nugget that death can also happene whenever it makes sense for the plot. Aka if you do something suicidal.

The pilots have failed to keep ICARUS away from the Bastion, and the leviathan is advancing at full speed, seeking to collide with the station and destroy it.

I don't think it's friendly, guys.

Van comes up with a desperate plan, to fly into the maw of the leviathan and overload her engine’s reactor. The resulting explosion will cripple the leviathan, but it’s a suicide run. Van speaks to Himna over the radio “We can’t save it, Himna. I’m sorry, but I have to stop it.”

Dylan and Bev talk about the position and effect for this action, and acknowledge that even a success would mean death for Van. Dylan smirks, “Van is a soldier through and through, if she sees no other option, I think she’s willing to do it.”

Meanwhile Claire looks at her sheet. She wrote a promise, “I will give my life for Van, when the time comes.” She points this out to Dylan, and then describes Himna accelerating past Van, matching her collision course with the leviathan’s maw. “They’ll be lost without you” she says, as she speeds past, “just like I was.”

Did Van know about this "promise"? 'Cause I think she set you up.

Claire makes the roll instead of Dylan, as everyone at the table processes the significance of this choice…

Anyways, go make a new character, or pick some NPC to upgrade into PC status. Which I guess technically opens the door to getting an old character back.

Everyone takes some time after the mission to talk about what happened, especially Himna’s sacrifice. Claire thinks about her next character between sessions, and decides to play something totally different from Himna.

I would've slapped the taste out of your mouth if you went with Himna's long lost twin sister who is exactly like her.

She begins the next session of play by making Falin, a failed pilot candidate. They were part of the most recent and advanced batch of pilots that the naval authority manufactured, which according to them had a fatal flaw, rendering them unsuitable for service.

One of those fatal flaws apparently involves having "they/them" pronouns.

Thus Falin is out to prove themselves worthy, in the eyes of the naval authority, the other pilots, and themselves. Falin is the Enigma, and when the others launch, they steal a maintenance engine from the hangar and join the fight under a mysterious callsign.

I don't think this secret identity shit is gonna work in a mecha context. Especially not if you have the same base of operations as everyone else. The fuck is that gonna work out in even the short-term?


Another fatal flaw appears to be "Unable to say 'no' to fast food".

Clocks

It's the typical narrative RPG thing. You use it to track the progress of various short- to long-term events. Every clock has 4, 6 or 8 segments.

Hawk is fighting Hydra in an ancient network of catacombs under the city’s harbour. The catacombs are rapidly flooding after Hawk smashed Hydra through a wall that held back the water. Bev starts a 4-count clock called “washed away” and marks 1 segment. This short clock means there’s very little time left before the water overwhelms them both. Will they finish their duel despite the danger?

Who the fuck is Hydra?

Raven is composing a piece of music, something that contains all her triumphs and sorrows, to sway the broken hearts of their adversaries. It’s a long term project. After some discussion, Bev and Claire decide that an 8-count clock makes sense.

This is probably still not gay enough.

ICARUS reroutes what power it has left to its engines, and flees into the asteroid belt. Van and Surt give chase. Bev starts an 8-count clock called “the pursuit,” and marks three segments. Bev also makes a 4-count clock called “run to mother.” If the protagonists can fill their pursuit clock, they have ICARUS trapped, but if the run to mother clock fills, ICARUS makes it to the safety of its brood. If both clocks fill at the same time, they trap ICARUS, but its mother comes to its aid, and the protagonists will have a much bigger problem to contend with.

This would be a "Try to get x successes before the other party does" type situation in a saner RPG.

(You can't do that hear 'cause NPCs don't really exist in a mechanical sense.)

To represent the unrest and protesting in the city, Bev makes a 6-count clock called “uprising.” They start this clock at 4 segments, since the situation is already quite heated. As the story unfolds, certain events prompt Bev to mark or erase segments of the clock. If it ever fills, the revolution begins. At that point Bev might start two racing clocks, one for the revolution overturning the corrupt authorities, and another for the authorities efforts to crush the uprising.

Remember that Sailor Moon episode that was just the BLM riots? Me neither.

Gather Information

God is this boring. No wonder you're the black sheep of the playsets

So tucked in the last two pages of this chapter, we get these rules about gathering information. Make a roll!

• 1-3: 1 question
• 4-5: 1 question + 1 follow-up
• 6: 2 questions + 1 follow-up

So you get to ask 1-2 questions, and if you're lucky you can make a follow-up question in response to your original question. Amazing.

Each playbook has a different list of questions, which reflect the unique perspective that character would have on a given situation. For example, the Guardian can ask ‘Who here is afraid?’ and the Time Traveller can ask ‘What is already in motion here?’ This means that, depending on their playbook, protagonists will only have access to certain types of information.

WTF is this? I've seen video games with deeper dialogue options.

Fawn is nervously flirting with Hawk, their eyes meet and then they both look away.

Anya rolls Fawn’s confess to gather info. There is no immediate danger here, so this is a fortune roll. Anya rolls a 4, and chooses to ask “What does Hawk really want?” Dylan answers that Hawk isn’t really flirting, she’s trying to get Fawn to reveal her secret. Anya asks a follow up question “What would it take to make Hawk fall for Fawn, despite herself?”

WTF is this? Just roleplay, you little shits.

Van is probing the leviathan’s defenses, looking for an opening or vulnerability using analyze. There is obvious danger here, from the leviathan and its swarm of defensive drones, so Bev says the roll will be risky, with standard effect. Dylan rolls Van’s analyze, and gets a 3. Dylan gets to ask one question, he chooses “Where can I gain an edge?” Bev answers that Van sees a pattern in the swarm’s movements, and that she could exploit that pattern to make it to the leviathan’s hull. However, while Van was so focused on her analysis that she drifted into range of the leviathan’s main weapons, and her HUD lights up with warnings as ICARUS opens fire.

"I will have your character dead after all, Dylan!"

Next Time: Phases of Play. Where we find out how this shit is supposed to be played I guess.