I haven't played AQNP yet but I've run/played a campaign of Agon and have read a few other Paragon games. The changes I liked are
The revitalization mechanics where you come back with an advance but a higher starting stress. This is great in how it amps up the narrative stress. The characters are more powerful due to the advances but also a bit broken and more likely to die again and likely going against bigger odds since the story is underway and the danger is likely in your face.
The stress bonus looks like it is a fun press your luck mechanic
Looking at your new player sheet, I really like where you are heading with the Domains and the Brand Loyalty (previously Perks). The Domains/Perks in the current V1.1 work fine but they are a bit "generic" and whereas your new ones really capture more of a narrative feel. This is especially true with the new Brand Loyalty which really pushes the corp narrative hard.
I've started working on a Paragon game that is basically Lost in Space, with a crew jumping from planet to planet in search of home — or at least a planet they could call home. After running an Agon campaign, I realized that the system would work perfectly.
I realized in starting to develop it that figuring out what the Domains are and how Divine Favor remaps is one of the main keys to making the narrative of the game woven in with the player mechanics. Odyssey Aquatica does this well. Curiosity, Determination, Subtlety, and Warmth just work so wall for the theme. They aren't just renames of Str/Dex/Wis/Int. And the odd mix of gear and training is perfect flavor — I soooo love "Marine Friend"! The game Deathmatch Island also has a great Domain list (with a bonus special Domain) that really drives home that they are contestants. On the surface, Deathmatch Island replacing Divine Favor with gear seems dull but in this case it works, since the limited use really drives home the feeling of hard won weapon/gear drops.
Hello! I left a rating on the game, in hopes that 5 community copies would get added, so I can obtain one, as I don't have money because I'm recently disabled.
This game is absolutely fascinating, for all the reasons I stated in the review, and I would love to play it!
Thank you for creating such an intriguing game! I hope I get to read and play it.
I couldn't find anyone to play with, so I created my own little adventure.
The best part is the spatial/temporal anomalies that can inflict your character during travel, that make you try to turn a disadvantage to an advantage.
I think a list of more of these space afflictions would be great. Like Morg Borg, you can roll to see what kind of body/mind calamity you developed, and also like Mork Borg, try to survive the adventure with these disabilities!
Thank you so much again for this wonderful game, and I will enjoy adding it's elements to my SF campaign as extra solar travel commences.
All Quiet No Peace is one of the most ambitious Paragon playset I’ve read. Instead of only trying to play with the strengths of Agon which is mainly about power fantasy and fun rivalry, it transforms it into a convincing horror system by a few interesting changes.
The most marking and (again) ambitious one is the Terror Phase which works really well. Stress bonus dice is also here and more than just being a really really fun mechanic to play with : it changes completely your relationship to stress.
But some problems appear when going over the details.
While the debt is a very powerful storytelling tool creatin this unifying final hope of retiring a character, no initial debt is actually suggested. This makes it seems way more frivolous than it should, an accessory instead of a central theme. It also makes the cost of reanimation useless.
Termination does not seem to give any bonus to character going close to termination (which is fine), but the dots on the character sheet seem to indicate the opposite or are useless to play.
Rules for long-term employees don’t work at all since termination is not definitive and only costs 2 debt and one permanent stress. It also isn’t really interesting or thematic having an advantage after a dead character when the usual paragon games ignore that problem by being about character power and having collective retiring options.
A few points may need a bit of polishing?
I’m not sure if giving 1 merit for a won assignment is a practical joke on the players or a typo for 1 point.
Preparation “clearing bonuses and marking new ones” does not make explicit what those bonuses are. Employee perks?
What resolve is, really is unclear, as well as “senior rank” employees. I guess it’s an additional stress buffer. It may then be a bit too good for the cost if it also self cleans between every scenario like written page 7.
Merits, Points and Debt. While debt is really evocative, merits and points are not, maybe something like corpocredits would be more appropriate?
“Burn your debt and join the resistance”, isn’t as much as a choice as saying: “I guess you could play another game and pretend it’s this one”.
Clarifying the limit (or lack thereof) on resurrecting an already perma stressed character. Can you resurrect 3, 4, or an infinite amount of time the same character?
Maybe Dread being by mission should be a bit more explicit.
Survive working with Scramble as the usual Agon battle conclusion may need to be said here, even if implied.
The term Virtues instead of Employee Core Competencies is used on page 7.
I will continue on following it and will rate it as highly as it deserves, if and when a few of those problems are taken care of.
Thank you for the incredibly thoughtful review! I'm glad that some of my more ambitious or weird changes struck a chord with you. If you ever get a chance to play it I'd love to hear how it goes.
You bring up a lot of great points and inconsistencies! I'll do a thorough scan and make sure that plugged some of these holes. I might have missed a few things in order to get this out in my deadline 😅!
I will respond to a few of your points here:
I must have removed my starting debt step for creating a new character! Whoopsie. Characters are meant to start with 7 debt.
Termination gives "points" equal to the dots on the square, 1 - 2 - 3 points.
I included the easy resurrection as a semi-comedic option, also hopefully to off-set the low lifespan of the characters. I'm very open to making it a more interesting choice! 1 permanent stress might not mean all that much.
Assignments are supposed to give one "point". That is a mistake on my end!
Bonuses and "Senior rank" refer to some systems I removed close to release. I'll correct that to "perks".
I'll make sure to make some of those vague rules and edge cases a bit more clear. I really appreciate the feedback!
Resurection is an important side of the system to give any hope of "winning" a campaign. With a starting debt of 7, the 2 debt increase and permanent stress reduction is great. Maybe just decide between if you can res a character only thrice or if resurection is possible an infinite amount of time without stress penalties once you res already thrice (I think I prefer the first one, but both are cool).
Termination giving "points" equal to the dots on the square, does not feel thematic or interact well with resurection? Would you gain those points every time you're terminated? If so you're gaining 6 points for a cost of only 2 points (and stress) basically which breaks the fear of getting hurt. You may just remove any kind of compensation for being terminated as the company just doesn't care all that much. A suggestion : if you make it so you can only res a character three times maybe just give points (that you need to use on upgrades not debt) on death. One for the first death, two for the second one and three for the third death. The fourth is permanent so no upgrades here. You justify it by being cyberneticly transformed or whatever ?
I will try it when I have the chance and will get back to you.
Great thoughts! I will try some stuff out. I have to admit that I hadn’t considered players dying over and over for tons of points. BTW, if you’re interested in paragon system design discussion, I’m part of a pretty active AGON discord with some dedicated hackers.
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I really like this! The tweaks you did to the Paragon system are good. Are you planning on creating any more Assignments?
Thanks for the kind words! What changes do you like in particular?
I’ve been brewing this in the back burner for a while - nothing to share, but a few previews!
Oooooo! Pretty! I like the redesign graphics.
I haven't played AQNP yet but I've run/played a campaign of Agon and have read a few other Paragon games. The changes I liked are
Looking at your new player sheet, I really like where you are heading with the Domains and the Brand Loyalty (previously Perks). The Domains/Perks in the current V1.1 work fine but they are a bit "generic" and whereas your new ones really capture more of a narrative feel. This is especially true with the new Brand Loyalty which really pushes the corp narrative hard.
I've started working on a Paragon game that is basically Lost in Space, with a crew jumping from planet to planet in search of home — or at least a planet they could call home. After running an Agon campaign, I realized that the system would work perfectly.
I realized in starting to develop it that figuring out what the Domains are and how Divine Favor remaps is one of the main keys to making the narrative of the game woven in with the player mechanics. Odyssey Aquatica does this well. Curiosity, Determination, Subtlety, and Warmth just work so wall for the theme. They aren't just renames of Str/Dex/Wis/Int. And the odd mix of gear and training is perfect flavor — I soooo love "Marine Friend"! The game Deathmatch Island also has a great Domain list (with a bonus special Domain) that really drives home that they are contestants. On the surface, Deathmatch Island replacing Divine Favor with gear seems dull but in this case it works, since the limited use really drives home the feeling of hard won weapon/gear drops.
Hello! I left a rating on the game, in hopes that 5 community copies would get added, so I can obtain one, as I don't have money because I'm recently disabled.
This game is absolutely fascinating, for all the reasons I stated in the review, and I would love to play it!
Thank you for creating such an intriguing game! I hope I get to read and play it.
Just updated the community copies available! I'll share it later today, so I hope you see this and claim your copy in case they run out!
Hello! I got one! Thank you so much!
I couldn't find anyone to play with, so I created my own little adventure.
The best part is the spatial/temporal anomalies that can inflict your character during travel, that make you try to turn a disadvantage to an advantage.
I think a list of more of these space afflictions would be great. Like Morg Borg, you can roll to see what kind of body/mind calamity you developed, and also like Mork Borg, try to survive the adventure with these disabilities!
Thank you so much again for this wonderful game, and I will enjoy adding it's elements to my SF campaign as extra solar travel commences.
All Quiet No Peace is one of the most ambitious Paragon playset I’ve read. Instead of only trying to play with the strengths of Agon which is mainly about power fantasy and fun rivalry, it transforms it into a convincing horror system by a few interesting changes.
The most marking and (again) ambitious one is the Terror Phase which works really well. Stress bonus dice is also here and more than just being a really really fun mechanic to play with : it changes completely your relationship to stress.
But some problems appear when going over the details.
A few points may need a bit of polishing?
I will continue on following it and will rate it as highly as it deserves, if and when a few of those problems are taken care of.
Thank you for the incredibly thoughtful review! I'm glad that some of my more ambitious or weird changes struck a chord with you. If you ever get a chance to play it I'd love to hear how it goes.
You bring up a lot of great points and inconsistencies! I'll do a thorough scan and make sure that plugged some of these holes. I might have missed a few things in order to get this out in my deadline 😅!
I will respond to a few of your points here:
I'll make sure to make some of those vague rules and edge cases a bit more clear. I really appreciate the feedback!
Resurection is an important side of the system to give any hope of "winning" a campaign. With a starting debt of 7, the 2 debt increase and permanent stress reduction is great. Maybe just decide between if you can res a character only thrice or if resurection is possible an infinite amount of time without stress penalties once you res already thrice (I think I prefer the first one, but both are cool).
Termination giving "points" equal to the dots on the square, does not feel thematic or interact well with resurection? Would you gain those points every time you're terminated? If so you're gaining 6 points for a cost of only 2 points (and stress) basically which breaks the fear of getting hurt. You may just remove any kind of compensation for being terminated as the company just doesn't care all that much. A suggestion : if you make it so you can only res a character three times maybe just give points (that you need to use on upgrades not debt) on death. One for the first death, two for the second one and three for the third death. The fourth is permanent so no upgrades here. You justify it by being cyberneticly transformed or whatever ?
I will try it when I have the chance and will get back to you.
Great thoughts! I will try some stuff out. I have to admit that I hadn’t considered players dying over and over for tons of points. BTW, if you’re interested in paragon system design discussion, I’m part of a pretty active AGON discord with some dedicated hackers.
Just updated the game! Thanks again for your feedback.