Coriolis: The Third Horizon

[nyvinter]

No, you need three sixes, not four. One to hit and then two to pay for the crit effect. The second one with five successes, yes, you can crit twice.

 

[Yora]

Okay, I see it "extra sixes beyond the first one" refers to the first six to have a hit, not the first bonus effect six. It did seem strange to have the weapon table show a 2 when it would always require 3 points. That already had me wondering.

Still, even three 6s out of 7d6 seems like a pretty low chance without rerolling for more 6s. And you can do reroll for attack because Ranged Combat is a skill roll, right?

 

[nyvinter]

Yes, you can reroll.

It was a while since I played it, but due to the handing the GM a darkness point every time you pray to reroll, this might be the one YZE game that allows you to reroll the reroll — but no-one has ever done that. Might be wrong though.

But the thing with weapons and gear to them is that most of them adds additional dice to the pool. So it's not unusual for soldiers and operatives to roll like 12d6.

 

[Yora]

You can only pray to reroll skill rolls, and you can only pray for each skill roll once.

Another way to roll for more 6s is autofire, which allows you to keep rolling more dice and collect more 6s until you roll a 1. (And then have to reload the next round.) Which sounds like wonderful madness.

 

[aramis erak]

Seems like nearly all dislike is for the setting and not the game.

And isn't the religion purely fictional? The closest thing I can think of are the Japanese seven fortune gods, which seem to have a roughly similar concept.

The setting's religious emphasis is also mirrored in the rules.
Daily prayers to the icons have specific mechanical benefits.

For Sci-Fi, this is a very unusual choice. Only Star Wars is so clearly "religion has mechanical potency" of the major settings.

Even in Bab5, where the Minbari religion is a dominant arc theme

Spoiler: B5 major series spoilers

especially that Commander Sinclair is the Minbari prophet Vaylen... and goes back in time on Bab 4 to become same. It also has tech that detects "minbari souls"... oh, and the Vorlons appear as angels to the "younger races"

there is little evidence of religion having effects that can be mechanically set.

 

[aramis erak]

Yes, you can reroll.

It was a while since I played it, but due to the handing the GM a darkness point every time you pray to reroll, this might be the one YZE game that allows you to reroll the reroll — but no-one has ever done that. Might be wrong though.

It doesn't, but others do.
Alien has several talents allowing a second push. (Alien also gives you no risk of self-harm on attribute dice nor skill dice, only on stress dice... and on stress dice, 1's are not damage, but panic.)
Blade Runner Replicants have the innate ability to push twice.

Note that Coriolis has less push risk than others... there is no "bad happens on a push with 1's..." unlike many others in the YZE lineup.

 

[Retreater]

Note that Coriolis has less push risk than others... there is no "bad happens on a push with 1's..." unlike many others in the YZE lineup.

Right, but that Darkness Point in the GM's hands can be worse than a point of damage to an attribute or piece of equipment (like in Forbidden Lands). There's no real guide to how bad to make it, IIRC.

 

[aramis erak]

Right, but that Darkness Point in the GM's hands can be worse than a point of damage to an attribute or piece of equipment (like in Forbidden Lands). There's no real guide to how bad to make it, IIRC.

Actually, that darkness point has very specific mechanical allowed uses... Most useful of which are likely to be pushing, forcing an empty clip, and activating your problem...
It's not an "unfettered GM" type system - not quite the weak GM of Houses of the Blooded or Cosmic Patrol, but on par with Mechwarrior Destiny

 

[Yora]

Darkness Points are a mechanic I think looks great in principle, but requires special care by the GM.
You have to use them when you have them, and you should use them in sensible ways to make them feel like a meaningful threat to players. But you also don't want to use them too efficiently and save them up for moments where you can really hurt the players the most. In other game, when the dice fall in an attack against a PC and it's two 20s, that's bad luck for the player. The GM simply decided to make a normal attack, nothing more. But when you use Darkness Points to make an attack that was already a hit into something that kills a PC, or to trip up a PC just before it reaches safety, that's situations where you deliberately decided to kick a player in the shin when there was no need to do so.

I think it's probably a good idea to use Darkness Points early and don't hoard them in large numbers. If you have a couple, keep using single points now and then even in situations where it won't be a big dramatic game changer. Or use them in situations where the players have already gained the upper hand and are at a clear advantage, and using a few points probably won't change the eventual outcome of the scene, only make it a bit harder to get there. Another thing I could see work well is to use the points to help a villain get away, rather than letting the villain hurt the PCs. It will still suck, but extending the long term conflict a bit longer does not hurt in the way of a character getting maimed or killed.

 

[Staffan]

Actually, that darkness point has very specific mechanical allowed uses... Most useful of which are likely to be pushing, forcing an empty clip, and activating your problem...
It's not an "unfettered GM" type system - not quite the weak GM of Houses of the Blooded or Cosmic Patrol, but on par with Mechwarrior Destiny

Some of the things you can do with DPs that can be pretty devastating:

• Misfire (3 DP): This cancels an attack the PC already made, and requires a Slow action and a roll for Technology to fix. That's a minimum of 2 actions wasted.
• Lost Possession (3 DP): A PC loses a thing.
• Reinforcements (1-3 DP): The enemy receives backup.
• Nature's Wrath (1-3 DP): Dangerous environmental stuff.
• Inflict a disease or mind meme (1 DP): This includes things like Oasis Disease, where the victim will keep drinking water until their brains swell up and die, and requires proxy tech or maybe exorcism to fix.
• Activating various NPC abilities: usually 1-3 DP for things that can be quite devastating (e.g. a byara's plague bite, which infects someone with a disease that's lethal over the course of a day unless they get medical attention, for a single DP).

So these are the kinds of things you invite by rerolling/praying. I think I prefer the risk management rerolls of MYZ over the DP certainty of Coriolis, at least the way the DPs are calibrated. The two times I GMed Coriolis, I did not feel limited by by Darkness Point pool. Rather, I felt overwhelmed: "How the heck am I supposed to spend all these without killing off my PCs?" That could have been an adventure design issue, but I don't think it was.