If anyone is curious about how my game went (as stated in the "Resolution of Continuity" thread. I made a new thread because there are spoilers for a different module) it went really really well. It ended up taking two sessions rather than the one originally planned. My players really got attached to Idris, and agonized about letting him loose outside of the TQZ. They ended up taking out the Blinf Iman and Nanoswarmed Doud to death.
My only recommendation for other people thinking of running is have Octogons betrayal come off as a big climatic chase. It felt like quite the pallette cleanser and climax to have two Helicoptors chasing their cars along a martian highway on their way out of the TQZ
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Just finished running Million Year Echo (spoiler)
Mon, 2015-10-26 13:21
#1
Evilnerf
Just finished running Million Year Echo (spoiler)
Mon, 2015-10-26 17:49
#2
Trappedinwikipedia
Thanks for the update, I
Thanks for the update, I always suspected that MYE would take more than one session. Did you start things off at the Hegira or have them navigate them TQZ?
Mon, 2015-10-26 18:36
#3
Evilnerf
I had them start with
I had them start with receiving the mission. Allowing them to get gear and such prior to the mission. Only thing they acquired was a Crasher truck which served them pretty well.
The sessions were split pretty much right at them about to board the Zepplin, so I suspect if you started it at that point like the book tells you, it would have been only one session.
My players followed the campaigns breadcrumbs like champs. Investigated the helicoptor crash first, then rescued the pilots cyberbrain from the Blind Iman (they were under the mistaken impression that she was the one they were after). After they took him out, we broke for the evening.
Mon, 2015-10-26 18:55
#4
Evilnerf
Couple of after action notes
Couple of after action notes/advice for people running the game:
- The Blind Iman went down way too easily. He isnt very combat capable and the two wastewalkers werent much of a challenge. He was even way too easy to find. They just used Enhanced Smell and picked up his scent.
- I had Idris be pretty forthright with the players (he started infecting their muses when they searched the helicoptor crash.) They thought he was interesting and helpful but they made sure to turn off their mesh connections when they left. In hindsight, I should have had him enable their connections himself and make his escape, but to be honest, I wasnt 100 pecent sure he could do that. Still am not sure about that.
- Dawoud was incredibly ineffective against the players. He absolutely could not do enough damage to overcome their armor and when he tried to run away, he was still being attacked by a disassembler swarm, so he died anyway.
- Octogon was similarly ineffective but that is because as soon the players heard the helicoptors coming, they knew what had happened. She got one ineffective shot off with her pistol before she got taken out.
Fri, 2015-10-30 15:40
#5
jackgraham
OK, thanks for the comments!
OK, thanks for the comments!
Just curious, what was the average armor value in your team? I think this is where we go wrong with monster stats occasionally, in that we might be tuning them for teams with lighter armor than is typical.
(And also: would you say your group are heavy min/maxers, or less so?)
Thanks again!
—
J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth!
http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham
Sat, 2015-10-31 11:26
#6
hyades
Evilnerf wrote:
Interesting. My players never got to encounter him directly as I have only run the con version of MYE but I always thought that he would be incredibly dangerous because he's packed with all those exsurgent strains.
If they kept Idris running until they left, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that it would have predicted the PCs shutting their wireless down later and would have found some sneaky way to get around this by the time the PCs leave. It's designed to fight Big E after all.
Yeah. Even with the pregens he's not much of a challenge. Most of those have 10/10 Body Armor, he does DV 1d10 + 3, AP 0 so he has to roll at least an 8 just to get through the armor. What I did was to give him acidic saliva that eats through armor like scrappers gel. I also made his toxin a nanotoxin so medichines wouldn't protect the PCs.
—
[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae,
vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram
et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso.
Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.
Sat, 2015-10-31 14:01
#7
Evilnerf
Most of my players used
Most of my players used premades, but not the ones that came with the Mod. They used the Zone Stalker (12/13), Ultimate Purifier (24/25), and Insurgent Reclaimer (14/18) and one custom made scientist character who used Nanoswarms for the most part. The ones who used premades definitely weren't min-maxers because I offered them the array of characters based more on appropriateness then power. The scientest wasn't really a min-maxer, but put a lot of work into making his character good at what he does do. He was able to churn out Nanoswarms like nobody's business but not very effective in direct combat.
When Octogon got her shot off, she shot the scientist character (Who was wearing light armor and a helmet.) In hindsight, I wished I'd burst fired or taken a penalty on the shot to overcome armor.
As far as the Nanoplagues, the Blind Iman should have been harder because of the Exurgent swarms, but the players had Guardian Nanoswarms running the whole time. I'm not 100% sure even still that they would have cancelled it out completely, but at the time I made a judgement call that they did.
Hyades, out of curiosity, how would you have had Idris set things up for that? In my game, idris was on 3 of their Mesh Inserts (having replaced their muses) and a dormant copy in a Ghost Module that they had taken from the Helicopter crash. The Scientist character had kept his Mesh Inserts inactive the entire time (using an exterior ecto for the most part, that he discarded before they left the zone)
Sat, 2015-10-31 14:20
#8
Trappedinwikipedia
Guardian nanos don't help a
Guardian nanos don't help a lot vs Exsurgent swarms. They'll fight them, but people still get infected if they come into contact with the swarm, (nanophages can stop them for a little while though), and generally speaking the Guardian swarm will be destroyed by the Exsurgent swarm before it destroys it. On average it takes a Exsurgent Swarm 14 turns to destroy a guardian swarm, while a guardian swarm always takes 25 turns to kill an exsurgent swarm.
My current party has an armor average of about 20-25 for both kinds. That's fully geared up though, it's often lower in situations where heavy combat armor or similar isn't acceptable.
Sat, 2015-10-31 14:25
#9
Evilnerf
See, I thought about that,
See, I thought about that, but the Nanoswarm entry says they can be used to "Coat this person" so I figured if you're surrounded by a layer of guardian Nanoswarm (or multiple layers even) then would an enemy swarm be able to get through. Am I mistaken about that?
Also, sure the Exurgent swarm would ultimately win out, but that wouldn't happen until round 25-ish. By then, the players have already had nearly a 400 combat actions orthereabouts to take out the Blind Iman, so ultimately, he still goes down like a punk.
Sat, 2015-10-31 16:28
#10
Trappedinwikipedia
In a situation like that I'd
In a situation like that I'd use the rules for potential infection, with the MOXx10 save vs infection. It'd take the exsurgent swarm about 40 seconds to completely destroy the Guardian swarm, but destroying enough of them to touch the skin/equipment beneath in a small area (like a mm^2) should be much faster, as nanomachines can't move very quickly. It'd probably take a matter of seconds seconds for the Exsurgent swarm to achieve local superiority long enough to infect. That's why the nanophages are so important, as they can fight back after that point.
Sat, 2015-10-31 18:36
#11
Evilnerf
If the Guardian Nanoswarms
If the Guardian Nanoswarms can't protect against nanophages, what exactly is the point?
Sat, 2015-10-31 20:30
#12
hyades
Evilnerf wrote:
Idris could trick them into believing that they've turned off wireless when in fact it isn't. How are they going to know?
With Idris controlling their mesh inserts, would they even be able to just turn them off?
Idris could place a compressed form of itself on some innocuous piece of wireless-capable hardware the PCs carry (a single spime or nanobot for example) and transmit from there.
Personally I'd say that if your guardian swarms are facing an exsurgent nanoswarm, the only thing you can hope for is that they'll buy you enough time to run or blow yourself up or just do what needs to be done and succumb to infection. As a horror gamer I like to keep everything exsurgent kind of unpredictable and extremely dangerous. There is no guaranteed protection. Like Trappedinwikipedia I'd probably let my players roll Luck on that.
Also, how does a PC know if his guardians are working properly? If they communicate with them, that's an infection vector. If they don't, will they notice if their swarm gets taken over by the exsurgent virus?
On the other hand exsurgent nanoswarms aren't space magic, so they definitely need the time and the numbers to reach their target, overcome it's defenses and infect it. Therefore on their own, they won't keep the PCs from wasting the Blind Imam, you're definitely right with that.
How did your players avoid digital infection via the Imam?
—
[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae,
vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram
et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso.
Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.
Sat, 2015-10-31 21:43
#13
Evilnerf
One had all Mesh devices off
One had all Mesh devices off besides his exterior Ecto (which he threw out before he left the TQZ), and the other 3 were "inoculated" by Idris.
Sat, 2015-10-31 21:50
#14
ORCACommander
Evilnerf wrote:If the
nanophages ae not he esxurgants :P nanophages are essentially nano tech white blood cells that target hostile nanites.
Tue, 2015-11-03 14:55
#15
DivineWrath
Guardian Nanoswarms are
Guardian Nanoswarms are Transhuman tech that is good at defending against Transhuman made nanoswarms. They can be most helpful against Dissassembler nanoswarms, but not so effective against TITAN or exsurgant nanoswarms. Still, if you intend to survive, you have to made do with what you got.
Tue, 2015-11-03 15:12
#16
Trappedinwikipedia
Evilnerf wrote:If the
I assume you meant enemy swarm by nanophages there, as they are another piece of defensive gear. Nanoswarms are fairly slow moving, if you see one coming, a Guardian Swarm can stop it before it arrives. They're more for area denial and last resorts than a primary way to deal with nanos. They also don't hurt other things which can be important when most of the other options involve flamethrowers, bombs, or powerful EMP. They also work a lot better against non-exsurgent nanos, which are (intentionally) pretty broken, where they deal more damage, and don't typically need to deal with being attacked themselves.
Against a nanoplague nanophages are a lot more important, as Guardians don't help after the swarm get inside the morph. Against an exsurgent nanoplague plasma warheads (or maybe even antimatter saturation if that's an option) and distance are the best options.
Tue, 2015-11-03 15:42
#17
Evilnerf
I meant Nanoplague, not
I meant Nanoplague, not nanophage. Sorry about that. I suppose I'm still really unclear on how a guardian Nanoswarm interacts with a nanoplague. You say they are pretty slow moving, but I guess the thing I don't get is if you can use a guardian swarm to surround your body. The book seems to suggest you can because it says:
"Any morph that comes into contact with a nanoplague is considered infected. The only defenses are guardian nanobots and nanophages (which work the same as guardian nanobots in this situation), though these are less effective against exsurgent nanobots, inflicting –2 damage to the swarm each Action Turn."
So it seems to me the Nanoplague would have to eat its way through the Guardians first before it can infect the body. Is there somewhere in the book where it says or suggests otherwise?
Tue, 2015-11-03 15:43
#18
Evilnerf
For that matter, wouldnt a
For that matter, wouldnt a Vacc suit prevent you from getting infected? At least until the dissassembler swarm breaks it open?
Tue, 2015-11-03 20:05
#19
ORCACommander
A Vac Suit is no longer a vac
A Vac Suit is no longer a vac suit once it is breached :P and yes the plague first has to over come the guardians before it can infect the target
Wed, 2015-11-04 00:20
#20
Trappedinwikipedia
A vac suit would. Something
A vac suit would. Something like a smart vac suit might actually just get infected in its own right.
Wed, 2015-11-04 08:38
#21
Evilnerf
ORCACommander wrote:A Vac
How would you handle those rules? How do you know when the suit is breached
Wed, 2015-11-04 12:20
#22
Trappedinwikipedia
Treating the swarm as
Treating the swarm as disassemblers and having it be breached seems like it would work for basic vacsuits. Smart vacsuits would probably fail faster thanks to the smart matter being subverted directly, and something like a hardsuit would need to take 30 damage before it is breached. Might be less if the self repairing parts of it can be subverted. That's how I'd do it anyway.
Wed, 2015-11-04 14:23
#23
Evilnerf
Okay so using the Mod as
Okay so using the Mod as written and using the rules, you guys are suggesting, here is how the fight with the Blind Iman should have gone down in a more climactic fashion:
- Players track down the Blind Iman, he spends his first action sending a nanoplague swarm against one of the Vac Suited players.
- One of the dissassembler swarms would try eating through the vac suit (I'm not sure how much damage they would do to it before it was breached)
- the players nanoswarms kick in, eating away slowly at the Nanoplague, disassembler swarm or both
- Players kill watewalkers and Iman through normal combat
- about 3 turns in (assuming the swarms have speed 1), the suit js breached and there is a chance of one of the characters being infected.
Am I interpreting the Nanoswarm rules correctly in this case?
Wed, 2015-11-04 16:43
#24
ORCACommander
not quite, nanoplauges probly
not quite, nanoplauges probly do not have disemblers in them rather the iman would send to a plague and dissemblers seperately. nanites are so small they have to be specialized and can not multitask. As for how long to breach a vac suit, mostly depends on how dickish you want to be but you can also assign items their own hit points and say that beyond this certain threshold, say 25%damaged there are breaches in the suit severe enough to no longer be vacuum sealed.
Wed, 2015-11-04 16:51
#25
Evilnerf
Right I meant the
Right I meant the dissassemblers come from the Wastewalkers
Thu, 2015-11-05 09:10
#26
ThatWhichNeverWas
Behold the voice of Inexperience!
I haven't run this myself, but iirc the exact nature of the Imam's Nanoplague isn't stated but rather subject to GM fiat - and the Imam's been there for a while.
What I'm getting at is that any superfluous tech in the area, if not the terrain itself, could be infected with the nanoplague - in other words, the GM has fiat to throw whatever they want at the players, from hidden pit-traps to chitinous horrors, as appropriate.
—
In the past we've had to compensate for weaknesses, finding quick solutions that only benefit a few.
But what if we never need to feel weak or morally conflicted again?
Wed, 2016-12-07 02:37
#27
Henrik
Errata
Thanks for all the useful comments regarding Million Year Echo
I'm currently planning to run this module for a group of players, not very familiar with the game. I'm therefore considering to use the pregenerated characters in the module, and this wondering if I need to change antagonist to be more effective against the players. I would like this game to be a real challenge - after all they are in the Quarantine Zone. My players are very experienced with rpgs, and are always using every situation for their benefit.
I have also found some errors in the module, especially regarding the characters. Dora Mendoza doesn't have any motivations and Piccolo doesn't have the relevant skill to handle the gun. I also wonder if there are an errata for this module, and eventually how you've solved this.
Wed, 2016-12-07 11:38
#28
Evilnerf
I didn't use the module NPCs.
I didn't use the module NPCs. I just printed off a bunch of premade characters from various books and let my players choose from them.
As far as fixing problems, I haven't run it since, but if I did, I definitely would beef up Blind Iman and Daewoo.