r/CAIN_RPG

So in my group, we had to bring an NPC with grace and a blasphemy into the sin's domain to perform the Nail of Abel ritual and summon the sin to fight. Consequently, that also meant that npc was there in the fight with us.

Now in CAIN, since combats run based on actions from the players followed by reactions from the enemies, it didn't really feel like there was a good place for the npc to fit in.

One thing we could have done was just treat the npc like a player, letting them have their own action and concequent reaction in the combat scene. In retrospect, this may have been the better option, but I think at the time we were worried about turning the npc into a dmpc. I also think the mechanic of getting to choose who gets to act next would have caused the npc to get shafted and never picked to go. Plus an objectively weaker npc acting instead of us could have felt more punishing than useful, as any of his turns would have been weaker (yet still causing concequences) compared to one of our own turns.

What my admin ACTUALLY did for us was declare that on any risk roll of 6, the fight was going so well in our favour that the npc would get a chance to influence the battlefield on those positive outcomes. (There's actually more, I think on 6's the admin actually decided to let the npc act INSTEAD of the sin, not just in addition to the sin's reaction. I definitely think was WAY too strong, but maybe without that one detail it wouldn't have been as bad)

Here's the problem we ran into though: we rolled WAY too many 6's on the risk die that session. Our npc was throwing in an extra action after almost everybody's real action, and the sin was unable to fight back. We absolutely clobbered the sin with only one player getting injured, at all. I mean, I recognize that at the end of the day, we got VERY lucky, and with that many 6's rolled, we were probably going to clobber it no matter what... but it honestly just felt like that sin did not get the opportunity to fight back at all.

So how would you run npcs in your game? Would they just get a turn like the players do or could incorporating the npc into the risk die work as long as we tone it down and dont get insanely lucky? Or is there a different way this should be done?

I ran an amazing 8-hour session of Operation Weeping Mountain, and my players and I loved Cain. But honestly, the fact that it was such a complete and well-thought-out adventure made all the difference, and I don't have the time to create something like that myself.

So I'd like to know what pre-made adventures you would recommend to play after Operation Weeping Mountain.

I wanna develop this blasphemy idea ive had for a while now inspired by takaba from JJK and mr smiley from MHA but first of all idk how to go about it and secondly idk how to make it balanced. someone help please. please? im probably doing it wrong and ill admit that but just correct me!

Some powers mention, command you to spend a psyche burst upon using them. Does that mean the powers that do not have this text don't require a burst to use? (not talking about passives here btw)
Is this psyche burst text relevant to the specific power or are bursts a rule for all powers?

Hi, I'm aware that the recommended size for exorcist groups is 2-4, I'm curious, however, people's experiences with more than four. I'm considering maybe doing 5 exorcists, but I want to see what challenges other admins have faced.

So, I'm currently in the process of working on a Cain campaign and one of my players wants to play an Exorcist with the Bind Blasphemy as well as the Doomed Agenda. The character is a former host of a hound sin but with CAIN intervention she was able to bind it to her control instead of it controlling her. And the concept is really cool but then it makes me wonder, besides obviously the Bind Blasphemy, if a host of a sin became an exorcist, what Blasphemies would match up with what sins in terms of capabilities and or thematically? I'd like to see what possible combinations everyone would suggest.

I plan on running a Cain game in the near future and I need some help clarifying how to calculate damage. With blasphemies it's sort of clear: you roll your Psyche with any appropriate bonuses. Vector adds +1 if the air bullets are used to disarm, Tension's Severance adds +1 die if it's to protects someone or if it's against an immobile target. Ardence sabre adds up to +3 dice from tension the first time it was used and also sixes count as 2 successes. Okay.

But what about weapons? Is there any meaningful difference between a switchblade and a chainsaw? Or a pocket revolver vs. a shotgun? I can make my own rulings for them, same as with offensive blasphemies, sure, but what's the RAW interpretation here?