Quote from: RNGm on August 29, 2024, 05:58:01 AMThe gm was new for the system also trying it out for the first time and was a bit skimpy in allowing the party to breath/rest to relieve stress meaningfully in order to build tension and we were at 8+ for two out of the four sessions and it was NOT fun. 

This is what I am worried about.  It wasn't that bad in a one shot but I could see it starting to ramp up.  I am worried that stress will hit levels that are practically incapacitating way too quickly.  I am thinking of a couple of rules to try to rein this in.  You only get stressed if there's something to be stressed about.  You only panic if there's something to panic about.  Pushing doesn't cause stress unless the situation warrants it.  Otherwise, it just costs time.   

Quote from: yosemitemike on August 29, 2024, 06:28:40 PM

Quote from: RNGm on August 29, 2024, 05:58:01 AMThe gm was new for the system also trying it out for the first time and was a bit skimpy in allowing the party to breath/rest to relieve stress meaningfully in order to build tension and we were at 8+ for two out of the four sessions and it was NOT fun. 

This is what I am worried about.  It wasn't that bad in a one shot but I could see it starting to ramp up.  I am worried that stress will hit levels that are practically incapacitating way too quickly.  I am thinking of a couple of rules to try to rein this in.  You only get stressed if there's something to be stressed about.  You only panic if there's something to panic about.  Pushing doesn't cause stress unless the situation warrants it.  Otherwise, it just costs time.   

Things like firing full auto IIRC gives you a stress point which I found odd given that most of us were battle heardened marines (and my character was specifically the heavy gunner who depended on that full auto).  Additionally, don't forget the cascading stress between player characters where one will get stress, fail their panic check, and get a result that either adds stress to other players or even forces a panic check on them immediately IIRC.  There was literally one minor encounter that was straight out of a scooby do live action film for our marines where we all just kept rolling badly and giving each other stress after one person gained a stress and rolled max results.  It's manageable and fun at up to 3 points, difficult at up to five, and just not fun on the upper half of the scale where even a minimum result on your roll will just add even more at best and at worst make you panic.

Quote from: RNGm on August 29, 2024, 09:31:17 PM

Quote from: yosemitemike on August 29, 2024, 06:28:40 PM

Quote from: RNGm on August 29, 2024, 05:58:01 AMThe gm was new for the system also trying it out for the first time and was a bit skimpy in allowing the party to breath/rest to relieve stress meaningfully in order to build tension and we were at 8+ for two out of the four sessions and it was NOT fun. 

This is what I am worried about.  It wasn't that bad in a one shot but I could see it starting to ramp up.  I am worried that stress will hit levels that are practically incapacitating way too quickly.  I am thinking of a couple of rules to try to rein this in.  You only get stressed if there's something to be stressed about.  You only panic if there's something to panic about.  Pushing doesn't cause stress unless the situation warrants it.  Otherwise, it just costs time.   

Things like firing full auto IIRC gives you a stress point which I found odd given that most of us were battle heardened marines (and my character was specifically the heavy gunner who depended on that full auto).  Additionally, don't forget the cascading stress between player characters where one will get stress, fail their panic check, and get a result that either adds stress to other players or even forces a panic check on them immediately IIRC.  There was literally one minor encounter that was straight out of a scooby do live action film for our marines where we all just kept rolling badly and giving each other stress after one person gained a stress and rolled max results.  It's manageable and fun at up to 3 points, difficult at up to five, and just not fun on the upper half of the scale where even a minimum result on your roll will just add even more at best and at worst make you panic.

Rgr that. It is exactly what I was talking about. It is worse when you are the guy tossing the dice and know you have horrid dice luck so you know you WILL bolo the roll and start the snow ball that leads to the avalanche.

Quote from: jhkim on August 26, 2024, 12:15:01 PM

Quote from: yosemitemike on August 26, 2024, 04:55:26 AMI ran a one shot for the Alien rpg to get some experience with the system before running Destroyer of Worlds.  The panic rules worked fine for civilian characters like colonists or space truckers.  Destroyer of Worlds focuses on Colonial Marines though.  The panic rules seem a bit much for what are supposed to be trained, experienced soldiers.  One of the possible results is that the character screams.

I'm not sure if you missed it, but you don't mention the Colonial Marine talents. They have two relevant to stress.

The "Overkill" talent lets you replace a Panic roll result of 11+ ("Seek Cover", "Scream", "Flee", "Berserk", or "Catatonic") with "Overkill" where you must immediately attack your enemies, ending if all enemies in sight are broken.

The "Banter" talent gives marines 2x the usual stress relief post-combat by chatting with each other.


Also, the "Command" skill lets the skilled character stop any panic effect in another character.

As in many such cases, the problems here are the result of simply not applying the rules.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan on September 03, 2024, 11:22:30 PM

Quote from: jhkim on August 26, 2024, 12:15:01 PM

Quote from: yosemitemike on August 26, 2024, 04:55:26 AMI ran a one shot for the Alien rpg to get some experience with the system before running Destroyer of Worlds.  The panic rules worked fine for civilian characters like colonists or space truckers.  Destroyer of Worlds focuses on Colonial Marines though.  The panic rules seem a bit much for what are supposed to be trained, experienced soldiers.  One of the possible results is that the character screams.

I'm not sure if you missed it, but you don't mention the Colonial Marine talents. They have two relevant to stress.

The "Overkill" talent lets you replace a Panic roll result of 11+ ("Seek Cover", "Scream", "Flee", "Berserk", or "Catatonic") with "Overkill" where you must immediately attack your enemies, ending if all enemies in sight are broken.

The "Banter" talent gives marines 2x the usual stress relief post-combat by chatting with each other.


Also, the "Command" skill lets the skilled character stop any panic effect in another character.

As in many such cases, the problems here are the result of simply not applying the rules.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's not still a problem. I've just read the system, and other people here have played it. Maybe even with these talents, stress for marines is still a problem for people. On the other hand, it's possible to play something and still get rules stuff wrong.

In any case, the marine Talents should at least be discussed. The colonial marines sourcebook I'm pretty sure also has more varied talents.

Quote from: jhkim on August 26, 2024, 12:15:01 PMI'm not sure if you missed it, but you don't mention the Colonial Marine talents. They have two relevant to stress.

The "Overkill" talent lets you replace a Panic roll result of 11+ ("Seek Cover", "Scream", "Flee", "Berserk", or "Catatonic") with "Overkill" where you must immediately attack your enemies, ending if all enemies in sight are broken.

Yeah, my pregen character had that one (I think we were running that module too) and was the smart heavy gunner.  It wasn't much more fun as I'd have to fire and effectively run out of ammo every time a panic roll was called for because our stress level was too high (8+ for all but the android character) due to panic rolls cascading stress repeatedly throughout the party.  Basically, it was a fire once even if I didn't want to and then do nothing for a round tax because I had to reload (assuming I even had a reload available which I didn't always).