Tabletop Gaming

I played several games with a group of friends and we now have biweekly meetups to play a few rounds of Blood on the Clocktower. I was wondering if anyone else played it?

It's a social deduction game with the same idea as Mafia/Werewolf or Town of Salem where all the players are either on the good team or the evil team. The good team has to find who's on the evil team by sharing information. The evil team consists of one Demon and at least one Minion (depending on player count). The goal is for the good team to find and execute the Demon, while the evil team has to try to convince the town that they're good.

What I like about it is that each player has their own unique role. There are a bunch of different roles with different abilities, whether it be getting information or having the ability to do something. There are even roles for different demons and minions with their own abilities. You're also allowed to go into private discussions, and dead players still play a part in the game. Dead players can still talk to other players and they have a dead vote that they can use to vote someone else (although if you use your dead vote, you lose it). I also like that you can talk during the night, although we have a house rule that you're not allowed to talk about the game during the night out loud (if we're playing online we're allowed to use text chat).

There's also so many custom scripts that combine all sorts of roles, including experimental ones that are released every month but aren't in the official scripts.

Does anyone else enjoy Blood on the Clocktower?

I have been trying to get my partner into Pathfinder 2nd edition, and they do seem taken with it, however he's been having some issues lately with PF2E. Notably, online. The more he gets into PF2E, the more hate he sees for 5E. He's been playing 5E for years now and has invested a lot of time and love into the game, and to see it bad-mouthed online by a ton of people either because they think PF2E is better, or they don't like the system, or because of the company that manages it, has been disheartening to him as of late.

He told me today that he might just stop playing altogether after he's finished with his games because of the hate he's been seeing online, and I would hate for him to drop something he loves and has invested so much time into because of some online hate comments coming from another community in an act of internet tribalism.

I tried telling him that people disliked D&D4E when it came out for various reasons, yet people still play it today, and that when I started playing 5E, 4E had the reputation of being the game that everyone hates, but he's still focused on how people will bad-mouth 5E when they really have no need to. One example I can remember him seeing (and before I bring it up, I understand Reddit's culture, but the large amount of forum posts are going to be on Reddit, especially for a large and insular hobby like TTRPGs) was on a Reddit thread of someone asking what an analogous spell or ability would be to some spell in 5E and one person commented something to the effect of "well, you could try using this spell/ability, but you won't get the same effect as you would in 5E because 5E is just for auto-win stuff that doesn't have the player trying hard" (moderately paraphrasing, but I think my point is conveyed well here).

Personally, I like PF2E over 5E, but I'll still play both, mostly because most people will play 5E and not want to try and learn a new system, especially if it's one that has a reputation of having exponentially more rules than the one they already know and are comfortable with. Does anyone have any tips for how I can help my partner here?

Hello, I've been working on this TTRPG since I played my first TTRPG years ago. My goal for it is to be fun with some resource management, very sandboxy, and accessible to new TTRPG players.

I have a 1-shot prepared, but havent had a chance to run it yet. I would also like to start a campaign that lasts a while where we can develop the rules together through playtesting.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/33546668

I have created a free tool for players to roll dice, saving the history of all rolls, and requiring no login: simply pass a unique URL back and forth between players as rolls are made.

You can start with the empty page here, or take a look at the code to make it yourself (it's simple HTML with a tiny bit of JavaScript).

I invite You to read and discuss. And if You have Your own "twisted gods", please share them.

In RPG and fantasy, we are often faced with a situation where the existence of gods is an empirically confirmed fact, rather than a matter of belief. Two extremes can be distinguished in the representation of these entities (note – I do not claim that all creation adopts one of these two extreme points of view). On the one hand – the trend adapted by e.g. most of the settings for D&D – gods are personification of certain values professed by people, not infrequently they are even „born” from the faith of mortals or at least derive power from it/are shaped by it – gods described as „good” are simply good in the conventional sense of the word, they sincerely care about their followers and you know what to expect from them. On the other side, we have motifs that can be considered taken from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology – the gods are incomprehensible, distant beings, completely unconcerned with human worldviews and so-called „good and evil”, mostly indifferent to humanity (and if by chance their paths intersect with humanit’s ones, humanity is screwed) – at the same time, it is not uncommon for most mortals to be unaware of their existence, instead worshipping imaginary, more anthropomorphic deities tailored to their emotional needs.

In this article, I wanted to present deities standing somewhere in the middle – entities whose goals, yes, are not fully understood by mortals, but nevertheless close enough to human morality that worshippers can find some commonality (real or imaginary) with their patrons. These gods are usually directly interested in some way in the lives of their worshipers – although not necessarily in the way those worshipers would like. At the same time, I wanted each description to contain a hook, an important point where the devotees’ understanding of the deity diverges from its real nature – and whose discovery could be a significant twist.

1. Mother of Peace

The Religion of the Mother of Peace, or the Cult of Harmony, is a strictly pacifist religion. Strictly and absolutely. No violence is allowed, ever, anywhere, in any situation. If you see a psychopath murdering children with an axe, you have no right to use force to prevent him from doing so. You cannot stun him, disarm him, knock him over, or even grab his arm. At most, you can ask him to stop, try to distract him, or stand up to the blow to give the children a chance to escape. Why do people follow such religion? First, the philosophy appeals to some – in the real world, Gandhi said something like „applying the eye-for-an-eye principle will make everyone blind.” – Followers of Harmony believe that violence begets violence, while peace begets peace. If they consistently turn the other cheek and don’t resist evil, they will stop winding up the spiral of violence and constant revenge and eventually evil will disappear naturally. Second – following the path of Harmony brings concrete benefits. Holy priests, who have long been non-violent, receive healing powers from the Mother of Peace – but they only work on other followers, so the policy of „I do violence, and the pacifist priest of Harmony heals me” is impossible. To use healing, you need to sincerely renounce violence – which, on the one hand, reduces your chances of survival in an encounter with hostile beings, on the other – if you come out of it alive, all your wounds will be healed, plus you gain protection from natural diseases and other threats. Third – the priests of Harmony preach that those who live and die, observing the principle of non-violence, will be taken into the bosom of the Mother of Peace after death, who will give them happiness incomparable to earthly suffering – so it is „profitable” to trade your life in exchange for heavenly pleasures.

The religion of the Mother of Peace may be perceived differently in society. It is possible that the authorities are avtively against it – it makes the subjects unwilling to fight, which reflects on the combat power of the state. Or perhaps they support it, seeing it as a tool to pacify potential rebels? Ordinary people may regard the Children of Peace as annoying lunatics – or treat them with deep respect. Even if healing powers may not work on „infidels,” after all, the Children may be able to help them in other ways – such as using conventional medicine (while remarking „Join us and you’ll see real miracles!”).

Well, what is the catch? Yes, the Mother of Peace actually exists. But her goal is by no means to create a utopia where people can live in happiness and peace. Her goal is to weaken the population of a given world/planet/country. When a sufficient portion of the population is transformed into followers of Harmony, for whom the use of violence – even for defense – is unthinkable, and even if it were thinkable, they would became too weak to use it, the time for reaping comes. The True Children of the Mother, hordes of bloodthirsty, voracious creatures, come out to prey and consume the pacified people. The devoured people continue to make prayers to the Mother, who continues to appear from time to time, assuring her followers that this is the final test and whoever perseveres without putting up a fight against the monstrous invaders will be saved.

During the course of the game, players may encounter followers of Harmony. It would be good for the GM to present them as something more than detached hippies, to make the players start to wonder if they are right. Maybe they’ll come across a reformed bad guy – e.g., a psychopathic follower of the god of murder who massacred a village of Harmonious heretics, but their indomitable will and serenity in the face of death made him convert and join them? Or more life-like – a husband who stopped beating his wife and children and is now an exemplary head of the family? Players can act as defenders of persecuted Harmonists (although this will involve some ambiguity – „Harmonists are decent people, but without people like us, who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, thay would survive”). They can have discussions with the priests about the legitimacy of pacifism. Maybe one of the player characters will start thinking about becoming a Harmonist after his career as an adventurer ends? The more sympathetic players become to the cult of Harmony, the more shocked they will be to discover indications that the Mother of Peace may be a much darker entity than it appears. At first, they may trivialize rumors like „Harmonists are actually a fifth column preparing the world for an invasion by dark forces!” as typical denigration of the new religion by the old clerical establishment. But as time goes by, the evidence will become stronger and stronger… Until finally there will be an invasion of the True Children that the players will have to face. Or maybe they will have the chance to prevent it, and will face the dilemma „Whether to believe the critics of the Harmonists and obstruct the great ritual, which, according to the Harmonists, is supposed to help bring universal happiness, but in fact open the gates of the dark dimensions…. Given that in order to do so, we will have to massacre a crowd of unarmed civilians, including women and children?”

The Mother of Peace is portrayed by her followers as a goddess with, one can easily guess, maternal qualities. Perhaps even as a pregnant woman? This is a play on the ambiguous nature of this entity – the presumed spiritual mother-protector of the followers of Harmony, and the actual fecundator of the swarm that will consume them. Players may come across disturbing references to „the coming of the True Mother’s Children” in sermons and hymns – priests may (sincerely or not) explain that it’s such a metaphor, that it’s about the era when people truly dedicated to peace will come.

2. Enemy of Superstition, Destroyer of Magic, Defender of Normalcy

There are many arguments that are made against magic. It is source of obscurantism, superstition and charlatanism, a way to fool people. It violates the natural order of things. It is the work of demons, leading to possession or by destroying the veil of the worlds to demonic invasion. It is the theft of the power due to the gods, a manifestation of human pride. It distracts people from giving honor due to these gods. It brings madness, sucks the life out of the environment, causes the risk of explosions or other side effects. Leads to inequality, as mages can exalt themselves over ordinary people. Or something.

Depending on the setting, each of these accusations may or may not be true. But that doesn’t stop the Defender cult from preaching them. Inquisitors and witch hunters roam the world, collecting magical artifacts, books and even arresting anyone who manifests magical talents. No, they don’t burn them at the stake. All items and people associated with magic go to the Bottomless Wells located in temples – supposedly the only way to effectively annihilate them. Importantly, the hunters are ordered to take mages alive if possible and throw them into the wells – supposedly a mage eliminated in the wrong way turns into a wraith, or something like that. Inquisitors are aided in this work by the magic-blocking powers provided by the Defender.

Witch hunters can be treated by the people as terrifying villains – or as heroes. The reason for the latter attitude is not necessarily solely propaganda and „fear of otherness.” It is possible that the land has actually suffered a lot at the hands of mages – perhaps it has just liberated itself from the rule of an evil sorcerer and his disciples, or it is fighting a fierce battle against a nation that uses magic in a fierce way. It would be worthwhile for players to see some of the negative effects of magic use with their own eyes, so that at the very least they would develop doubts about whether the Defender’s followers are wrong.

What is the truth? It’s easy to guess that the Defender is not concerned with defending the innocent from witchcraft. But neither is he driven by any other selfish yet high-minded motivations along the lines of „magic takes the glory away from the gods.” The truth is that for the „Defender,” magic is just darn tasty. Bottomless Wells are portals leading directly to his insatiable maw. It’s possible that the founder of the Inquisition managed by some miracle to communicate with this entity and make a pact „I will provide you with food, you will lend me and my disciples your anti-magic powers, which you use to safely digest objects radiating magic – and we will use them to incapacitate mages.”

What will happen when the players reveal the truth about the Defender? Maybe the inquisitors will be furious that their holy crusade turned out to be nothing more than feeding an inter-dimensional monster, they will turn their backs on their god, to which he will react with rage (not because of his violated dignity or some other irrelevant value, but because of the vision of being cut off from a steady supply of grub), through one of the wells he will enter the world and the players, along with the inquisitors, will have to face him? Or maybe the inquisitors will react with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement „So what if the Defender is not a noble god, but a voracious monster. Magic is still a threat, and he is the best means to eliminate it.” Perhaps, using the method of the cobbler Skuba (Polish legend), players will toss a special object emanating „toxic”‚ magic into one of the Wells, which will poison the Defender?

3. Truthsayer

God of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. People swear by his name. He is also worshipped as the god of justice and knowledge, so judges and scholars worship him. Lying brings his curse.

The Truthsayer doesn’t lie about himself – in fact, he wouldn’t be able to even if he wanted to (and he definitely doesn’t want to). The problem is that the people themselves have sung too much about him. As I pointed out above – he is the god of truth and ONLY truth. Justice does not matter to him, it is a totally foreign concept to him…. If he helps the investigators uncover the machinations of the villains, it is only so that the truth will come out, but he does not care whether the result will be the administration of justice. He might as well help the villains discover the heroes’ forays and subterfuges. As for acquiring knowledge – yes, he assists scholars in their research, in order to reveal the truth. However, if a scholar spins unsubstantiated speculations and hypotheses (which happen to be contrary to the truth), even in good faith – he draws the wrath of the Truthsayer. Simply put, untruths make the Truthsayer suffer. This applies to any untruth. Also fantasy. If the Truthsayer’s followers perform a ritual to increase his presence in the material world, they will bring a terrible calamity. From now on, the curse will fall on actors and poets, on anyone who utters a harmless lie like „You don’t look fat in that clothes,” „I’m not mad at you,” or „I’m on my way out,” as well as anyone who uses deception (no, the Truthsayer doesn’t care about the nobility of the cause – if you put on camouflage to sneak under the headquarters of the bad guys and rescue their innocent hostages, you are a hideous LIAR and deserve to be punished). Bah, people in ordinary conversations must be careful not to use metaphors and phraseological compounds. A Truthsayer may even go so far as to seek to eliminate words like „nice,” „tasty” or „good” – after all, they are subjective, and what is not objective truth, is a LIE.

Good player characters can help prepare a ritual to summon the avatar of the Truthsayer – after all, „God of Truth” sounds like a decidedly good dude, right? At some stage, they may realize that the world of absolute truth will be something terrible (maybe some conversation with a philosopher?) and try to torpedo the ritual. Maybe they will be able to accomplish this in advance… Or maybe the avatar will already begin to pass into our world? Then they will succeed in playing him off by pointing out the paradox – people summoned him because they believed he was the avatar of goodness, justice and knowledge – if he exploits this ignorance of theirs, he will benefit from lying, and this would be unacceptable. Or a character with an exceptionally high bluffing skill or the like might try to spew a tale so full of lies and absurdities that the avatar of Truth will go berserk just from listening – but a half-hearted success will only enrage him!

For the Truthsayer, as an antithesis, I would see a god of lies and fantasy – not the typical sinister „Prince of Lies” in the style of the Christian Satan, or some malicious trickster, but a deity whose motto is „Such is the world! A wicked world! Why is there no other world?” (B. Lesmian) or „Be guided in life by such foma (harmless lying) as will give you courage, goodness, health and happiness” (K. Vonnegut), who lies not for some selfish purposes, but because he firmly believes that lying IS GOOD. The real world is cruel and unfair, lying helps to endure it and achieve at least a little happiness – through escapist fantasies, small daily lies „From tomorrow I will take charge of myself and achieve something!” „You look nice”, „Don’t worry, you’re not a failure at all” through big lies like „Good is always rewarded and evil is punished”. In this arrangement, both the god of lies and the god of truth would be morally neutral in practice (both can assist followers in certain situations, but at the same time pose a danger – the god of truth mercilessly punishes anything that is not the absolute truth, the god of lies can entangle you in a web of delusion) – but in theory, it is the liar who is driven by more altruistic motivations and loves mortals.

4. Prince of Blades, Lord of Sharp Angles and Edges

Centuries ago, the Prince of Blades was worshipped as a deity of war, or even slaughter. Legends say that he made the claws of his worshippers – and even their teeth and nails – exceptionally sharp and dangerous to enemies. And the legend is true – albeit the Prince was never a god of war. He is the personification – or perhaps the source? – of all sharpness. He doesn’t care about crippling anyone, although that’s mostly a side effect, he just wants things to be sharp. Or rather – in passing, by his very existence, he makes them so?

Let’s say there is a place where strange phenomena occur. Babies are born with long and exceptionally sharp claws and fangs. Swords and axes made by local blacksmiths are famous for their exceptional sharpness (maybe the player characters just came here to get their hands on them?). Why go. There is a temple of the Prince underground, and its influence radiates to the surface. Cultists come to the town to unearth it – they believe in the Prince in his aspect of the god of war and believe that this will help them triumph over their enemies. When they realize their goal, they are met with a surprise. The cultists are transformed into living avatars of sharpness. Invisible blades cut them so as to eliminate all contortions (a head clipped to a cube is not a pleasant sight), their hands turn into scythes, and in their brains all thought of their own is replaced by a single imperative – cut! What’s more, the Prince’s influence is more and more visible in the neighborhood – everything becomes sharper. The most visible effect from a mechanical point of view is that all weapons (edged weapons to a slightly lesser extent, but also) deal more damage. But as the influence increases, even rubbing clothes against skin starts to be painful, then every touch hurts, until finally the very movements of air cut the skin. If players don’t close the temple, the effects can be really nasty. It is possible that earlier players encountered a strange artifact – a sponge ball. If they didn’t get rid of it, it will turn out to be a „statue” of Our Soft and Oblique Lady, the opposite of the Prince, which what him will mitigate the effects of opening the temple. The battle will take place not between good and evil, order and chaos, or other abstract constructs, but between Sharpness and Softness.

5. Mistress of Natural Instinct

A goddess of wildlife, her followers preach the need to return to a life in harmony with nature and reject the defiling influence of civilization. Oh, it would seem – another „mother Gaia” with a pseudo-ecological cult. The thing is, the Lady is not at all measured by the fact that people are poisoning rivers and cutting down forests, as her followers believe. What she doesn’t like is that they are rational. Reason, consciousness, morality, are evolutionary dead ends. They only multiply pain and suffering. Do animals – much less plants – waste time and resources on some foolishness like art? Do they risk their lives and the lives of others for abstracts like honor? Do they suffer from offended dignity, boredom or lack of meaning in life? People simply combine too much to be happy. The return to nature is not primarily about rejecting technology (although that will probably be a side effect of it), but liberating people from the unnecessary baggage of excess thoughts. Let them become like animals – free, innocent and amoral. This is the purpose of the Lady, which is not grasped (possibly except by the high priests) by her followers. Yes, during ecstatic rituals some of them fall into a trance, during which they walk on all fours, howl and growl. And the priests are able to bring this trance on their enemies… But are the followers ready to accept the truth that, according to the will of their mistress, this is how life should be, forever?

Rest of the book is avalaible for free here: https://adeptus7.itch.io/twisted-gods

In most countries it will be probably DnD. But in mine (Poland) for many years Warhammer Fantasy was THE RPG. Nowadays it is more equal. Other popular games are Call of Cthulhu and World of Darkness line. I see that recently Shadows of the Demon Lord gains popularity. There is also quite alive indie scene. We have some bigger, commercial Polish RPGs (like Monastyr, Neuroshima, Wolsung), but nowadays they are rather not played.

Star Wars: Unlimited is filling the MtG hole after I got fed up with their mismanagement of the game.

Out of 250 rolls 27 were 1's. A roughly 11% chance of rolling a 1 on this die.

For those curious about the rest:

Hello, im a new GM and im looking for places to get digital battlemaps. Im looking for ones that are compatible with roll20.

So, it seems like after FFG lost Star Wars: Armada to Atomic Mass Games (both studios under Asmodee) and fired the responsible heads in the process, said heads switched sides to the other "Star" sci fi franchise and were busy doing something similar with warp cores and glowing nacelles. It's supposed to be released in a few weeks and can be preordered.

First impressions are available already ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yLPi9N7-0I0 , https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjBILyzBZ5Q , https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gIOyB9ZXn8s ). Let's see how well the universe of politics, ethical dilemmas and people that turn into lizards if they move too fast translates into a miniatures tabletop game.

So, I have some epic scale Eldar lying around that I'd like to give a shot. And as I liked the design of the Eldar tanks, I got too many tanks, but thankfully there's a tank craftworld (Yme-Loc) with rules.

But... There are too many rules!

There's rules that were used for epic UK tournaments at http://epic-uk.co.uk/wp/army-lists/

There's another list over at taccomms: https://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=31593

And there's even another tank heavy list there, at https://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=23411 , although that's "Craftworld Mymeara", for whatever reason.

... Aaaand there's a list in the army builder: https://adam77.github.io/snapfire/war/chooser.html?list=EL_ymeloc_EPICUK (which seems to be the epic UK version, but a different version).

Does anybody know which one to take? I'd like to paint some units firsts that I'm then actually going to use instead of painting all guardians first just to not fields them, so coming up with a small list would really be my first step. I'm inclined to use the army builder one, just because it's easy to use.

"We are not ready to share quite yet, but our next Brass sequel is our current top priority for development in 2024. It is slated to be our next Kickstarter, which we plan to launch Q4 2024. The exact launch date will depend on rate of development and testing. Thanks for your patience!" - Gavan Brown

the next Brass sequel is still happening, planned to launch on Kickstarter in Q4 2024 earliest.

Other Unanswered Questions at time of posting

• will Martin Wallace be involved?
• will it have a solo mode?
• will it be like the 2-player fan made Brass variant Brass: Amsterdam?
• which city would it be?

So, having recently gotten Star Wars: Armada, my son got hooked on it about as much as me, so we've been playing a few games over the past two weeks.

Today, we played our first 400 points game. I played Rebels: an mc75 ordnance cruiser, an mc30 scout frigate, a cr90a, a CR90b and the four x wings from the base game. He played Imperials with an ISD1 and carrier upgrades, an Interdictor with the two upgrades that could slow down nearby vessels and that created that speed-zero-zone when placing ships and lots of squadrons.

This was our initial setup. I navigated the cr90s quickly over to the the two mcs, the isd got stuck in the asteroids and the two mcs destroyed the Interdictor in turns three and four.

Here's the deal though... After that happened, I quickly glanced at his cards, figured I had a comfortable lead over him and simply left. Turns four and five were essentially just me stepping on the gas and getting away from his isd.

The whole game felt just so... I dunno, boring? Anticlimatic? It was one turn ramp up, one and a half turns of space battle and finally three and a half turns escaping and no fighting.

Is that really how the game turns out? Are we missing something? Forgetting something?

Mirror, in case you hit a paywall: https://archive.is/iCYt4

So, pretty much title.

A shop in Germany had a pretty good deal on some selected Armada packs and the game seemed like exactly my kind of vibe (big ships, slow movement that you need to plan ahead for, Star Wars from the 80s), so I just said eff it and treated me some Christmas presents. The order isn't even on its way yet, but I'm eager to try it over Christmas with my oldest. The point is that I have no idea about the game (beyond some rules videos I watched) and pretty much just bought what was on sale, so I probably ended up buying stuff you don't really need and am probably lacking some expansions that are considered essential. Also, I'd like to avoid frustration for my son and me, so if you have any advice on how to create more or less even armies with what I ordered, I'd be super grateful.

What I ordered is the base game, the expansion cards set, an MC30c frigate, a CR90 corvette, a nebulon b frigate, a rebel transport flotilla, an interdictor class star destroyer, an onager class star destroyer, an imperium class star destroyer, a pack of empire fighters and an MC75 cruiser. So, all in all, some larger vessels and a set of fighters for the empire and some smaller vessels for the rebels.

Does that work? Will this result in enjoyable games or was the selection that was on sale only on sale because it sucked? Any advice on how to start with what I got beyond playing the training scenario and just going with it?

I've played D&D pretty casually from time to time, but always as a player and usually just short one shots and not big campaigns.

This year I started feeling the urge to play in a big campaign, and some of my friends were showing interest. I decided why not try my hand at DMing! I went all in, I bought 6 books (DMG, PHG, Xanthars guide, tashas, MM, and MotM) a ton of paint supplies, and some tiles/maps.

And I'm glad I did! We've had four sessions so far and it's going great. We are starting on the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign, and afterwards we will be moving into homebrew, eventually reaching level 12+. I have already started changing a few things from LMoP to fit the homebrew campaign I am planning where the BBeG will be Atropus and its chosen Warlock who is trying to attract the elder evil to Toril.

I didn't have any experience running a campaign, or even painting, but there are so many useful resources on youtube that I feel confident I've got a handle on things!

If anyone has any tips or pointers for a first time DM I'd love to hear them! I am always willing to learn.

If anyone wants to see more of the figures I've painted, heres a couple of pics https://imgur.com/a/1SMF4jr?

Interesting new TCG, the art seems really nice.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/9721677

I have a player in my newly starting Abomination Vaults campaign that wanted the Cursed background. As part of that, I asked them what kind of curse they would have, and they came up with/saw an idea for their curse that they liked and suggested.

Their initial suggestion would be that their PC would forever be unable to open doors, which I liked the flavor of, but based on the wording of the Cursed background, was worried that it would be too much of an ever-present mechanical obstacle. Note: This player is new to TTRPGs and PF2e, so may not understand the ramifications of mechanical limitations.

To try and match what they suggested, but expand on the curse a little bit, I suggested that they perhaps are occasionally compelled to close doors on themselves instead, which the player liked.

To make it more defined and consistent, I whipped together this curse, and would like feedback on it's implementation and overall feel.

Curse: Caspian once insulted a fey creature by enclosing it within a room, in an attempt to trap it. The fey then cursed Caspian to close doors on themselves under stressful circumstances.

When Caspian approaches or crosses a doorway under a stressful environment (this may be during exploration of a dungeon or during combat), a will save may be requested to be rolled, with a DC for Caspian's level. (Level 1 = DC 15) This may occur up to 3 times per day. [Should this be more limited?]

[Daily prep: does it reset difficulty? Maybe a refocus type activity to reset difficulty or prevent the will saves for a period?]

Outcomes:

Critical Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, and no new will saves must be made for the remainder of the day

Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, but the DC for the next will save is increased by one difficulty level. [maybe should be a +2 each time?]

Failure: Caspian is unable to resist, and must spend an action [should this be a free action only for curse? opening doors takes actions too] to close the door in front of, or behind them, [figure out in what scenarios they close it before/after crossing] The DC difficulty modifier is then reset.

Critical Failure: As failure, but Caspian is unable to open the door without attempting a new will save. The DC of this will save is the basic DC difficulty, and a failure does not increase the DC difficulty.

My current thoughts for targeted input are denoted in [square brackets], but I'd like some general feedback as well. My intention is that this is an obstacle that may end up in a more dangerous circumstance, but isn't guaranteed to get them in trouble all the time.

The question about the refocus activity would be a way to prepare for the possibility of the curse, like when the players know they are about to enter a dangerous area, similar to pre-buffing.

Title

Hi all, I'm interested in some advice from folks used to facilitating board games.

So I acquired a copy of Cosmic Encounter and its Incursion expansion earlier this year. Tomorrow I'm having some folks over for dinner and board gaming so I was excited to learn the rules and see what this game was all about. I heard it's really good!

For those unaware, Cosmic Encounter is a space strategy game with a ton of potential for goofy interactions. When players have an encounter, they can choose to play cards indicating whether they want to fight or negotiate. If two players play a negotiate card, then they have a chance to exchange territory and resources.

Today I realized a potential issue in the form of a 1-minute timer during the Negotiation phase. Apparently, if two players end up in a Negotiation, they have one minute to make a deal. If they can't conclude the deal in one minute the negotiation "breaks down" and both players end up losing three of their ships.

My players love board games but I can think of at least three of them who won't like playing with a timer and will probably suggest we ignore it.

I don't want to alienate my players and I picked this because it seemed like a fun and fairly accessible experience so I would feel bad for insisting on something that made them uncomfortable.

On the other hand, I'm concerned that analysis paralysis will make the game take forever when players can take as long as they want to make deals. I've played Bullet with the same people and, since we have agreed not to use timers in that game, it can take a long time for players to finish placing their last pieces, leading to 1-2 hour games (when the playtime estimate is 15 minutes).

So I want to know what you think, especially if you have experience with Cosmic Encounter or introducing new games to people. Can we still get a good experience out of the game without using timers for a first time run? Should I recommend a compromise such as more time and/or removing the ship destruction punishment (choosing, instead, to just cancel the deal if it takes too long)?

Edit: thanks for your suggestions! I think I know how to approach this when we do play the game. Sadly we didn't end up playing it last night 🤷