u/Reyunitytwo

SPOILER WARNING The below post regards a puzzle pertaining to a certain diary.

This is a bit of a weird post but I wanted to know how hard it was for you guys to figure out the puzzle regarding the outer room in Lady Clara's diary (haven't solved it yet so no spoilers). Mostly because I am a very impatient person, so I tend to impulsively click to get hints sometimes, even when maybe I didn't need them, due to the fact I am playing with the blue prince hint system website (BTW dev if you're here, I think the hint might be a bit too obvious)

Initially I thought the sketch might have to do with the antechamber since that's the only room that's drawn like that often, so I tried opening all four antechamber doors and going to the outer room but nothing changed. So I impulsively clicked a hint and it was about the shrine, so I immediately clicked that I needed the blessing of the monk for this one. Now the reason I'm asking how hard it was to figure out for you is because this is the one hint I really regret getting. I think I could have figured this out on my own maybe (are there any other hints for this puzzle?) but now I'll never know and I feel bad about it haha.

Maybe I should stop using hints, but most of the time I used a hint I was like "yeah, no way I'm getting that" or the actual hint in game was in a book I read a long time ago in a room I wouldn't have returned to.

Mannaggia di quella puttana e a tutto il creato dell'intelligenza artificiale. Non è possibile che ALL'UNIVERSITÀ (ISTRUZIONE FACOLTATIVA) di informatica ci sia gente che porco dio quando viene messa di fronte al dover fare un progetto, non solo non è in grado di fare NIENTE, ma NON VUOLE fare niente o anche solo impegnarsi un minimo per fare qualcosa, e tutto questo è colpa di quell'IA di merda che ora ti permette di fare "hmm si, fammi il progetto" presentarsi al primo appello, passare l'esame e godersi un estate di grattamento di coglioni piuttosto che IMPARARE QUALSIASI COSA. Premetto che l'errore di scegliermi il gruppo con il caso umano l'ho fatto io, ma preferivo fare il progetto con qualcuno che conoscevo e che avrebbe almeno fatto il minimo, che dover lavorare con qualcuno che non conoscevo e dover trovare il gruppo. Quanto mi sbagliavo. Non solo non ha mosso un dito, non ha neanche provato a informarsi sul come fare qualcosa, manco usando l'ia per aiutarsi, ma oggi mi è arrivata la notizia che ha ABBANDONATO IL GRUPPO IN FAVORE DI UNIRSI A QUELLO DI QUALCUNO CHE AVEVA IL PROGETTO GIÀ TERMINATO E FATTO INTERAMENTE CON CLAUDE. Premetto che questo progetto può essere consegnato entro 6 FOTTUTI MESI. 6 MESI. E NON CI VOGLIONO 6 MESI A FARLO. E ovviamente io ora la prendo nel culo, perché ora che tutti i gruppi sono già formati devo trovare qualcun'altro con cui fare il progetto. Per quale cazzo di motivo gente simile viene a buttare migliaia di euro di tasse universitarie per FARE NULLA e copiare ogni singolo fottuto esame. La laurea in informatica è pure inutile per uno che vuole lavorare nel campo ormai. Però ovviamente la prendo nel culo per essere una persona ragionevole e che vuole almeno, sia mai, apprendere qualcosa da questo progetto. Assurdo.

First time player here, as per title, I have a character concept in mind, but I cant settle on what classes represent this best and work well with the concept. The idea is this character who was basically a human magic pool, in our game world some people are held as slaves and basically "mined" for their life force for magic. My character was one such slave and escaped, and now wants to be one who protects his party at all costs. So I wanted something to represent him tapping into his life force for the power to protect his allies (which I envisioned as mainly fire at the start). My eyes set on a couple classes, mutant and arcanist, maybe elementalist, I tried looking at dark blade but it just sucks(what do you mean I need a bond to do anything with this class, I don't want to HAVE to pick heart of darkness) but the thing is I wanted my character to be a melee fighter with a sword as well, and mutant seems aimed at unarmed attacks(it would be perfect if I could just use my weapon) and arcanist looks pretty underwhelming in what the arcana actually does(forge arcanum in this case), plus I wanted to take some guardian but that at least matches my idea. Can anyone help with this? I genuinely can't seem to make a build that makes me say "yes, that's the one"

So I have recently bought this adventure for the sole purpose of running part 1 as an introduction to some players who wanted to try out the system, and I wanted to try it out as well. I read that part 1 could be run as a one shot(great!) and that i could be balanced for 6 players(even better!). So we tried it and... it kinda sucked (for me, not that much for the players) , but I already signed up for running it again at a fair a few days from now, so aside from being an opinion on the adventure(only part 1) this is also me asking for advice to make it more... bearable.

Some info about myself: I have been gming for a year and a half, mostly lancer (so I enjoy a good crunchy combat) and mostly using a vtt to automate some stuff, I wanted to try out the system due to its tactical nature(as I said, love myself a good combat).

Issue 1: 4 Combats. Four. With 6 players (maybe that was my first mistake) every single one of them took upwards of 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. That's about a minimum of 6 hours doing calculations, but it ended up being worse than that. In 6 hours, we managed to REACH D4, and I had them resolve the situation in a few rolls because we were definitely out of time and everyone was bogged down by 3 back to back combats (mostly me) and it still took a total of 6 hours of running. How can I make it shorter? Is it even possible to run this thing with 6 players and not go mad?

Issue 2: Tracking stuff in combat. Encounter sheets suck (I guess this is a popular opinion after browsing this stuff a bit) and that combined with this being my first time running a complex game by tracking stuff on paper, it got messy real fast. Having to whip out 22 miniatures and color code them by group, was basically an impossible ask for me, so for the map and tokens, I used a vtt and cast my screen on a big TV table, and things still got very messy. Admittedly it might be a bit of a skill issue, but this is supposed to be run by someone who has no experience in ttrpgs! How? This wouldn't even be that much of an issue if it wasn't for the fact you have to do this crazy tracking and billion enemy turns and actions for 4 COMBATS IN A ROW, the mental wear was just insane. Is there any recommendation on vtts or tools I can use for automation? Codex looks cool but does it lend itself to in person play with a vtt for maps and tokens?

Issue 3: Too. Many. Books. I get it, it makes stuff more organized, and I wouldn't know a better solution, but damn, tabbing 3 different pdfs(adventure, encounters and rules reference) as well as a fourth tab having the vtt because as I said before, no way in hell I can find that many fitting minis and color code them and not lose track of who is who, it makes everything feel like I'm cross referencing 15 billion documents trying to find a mathematical formula or smth, it just adds on to the mental load. Having to tab into the encounter book to check the ability, then the vtt to move the token, then the rules reference to check whatever dazed means, then having to explain what potency is from the adventure book, just feels like a big mess.

Issue 4: 6 Player balancing. Yeah the book tells you to add some enemies, but it doesn't tell you where to put them, when to put them in and the encounter sheets don't even have room for them some times. Plus I felt like there were already plenty of enemies acting even without the extras. With the extras I just kept going "wait, I still have to move this many guys? Damn"

I genuinely want to like this tutorial, and run it again, or perhaps find a more suitable one shot, but I just had to get this out of my system because I barely enjoyed my time running this for the first time

So after a long wait, tomorrow I will finally have 2 friends over to play in a game of root with all factions!

But something is worrying me, which is, of course, everyone will be excited about playing the new factions(me included) but the recommended faction mixes for 3 players don't list any of them together! Just one. So my question is, if you have already played with the Homeland expansion, how did you mix factions to play with as much new stuff as possible while keeping it balanced? And even if you didn't, what do you think is a good way to do so?

We will be using hirelings if that helps balance out things(I own marauder hirelings and the homeland hirelings, as well as all 3 decks)