Ambrosia Software Web Board: DnDing Cythera - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Hey yall. So I was thinking it would be fun to DM a DnD campaign set in Cythera. I was wondering if yall had experience doing this already and maybe if there was already pre-existing resources for me to peruse.

Hope all is well and yall are healthy.

Hey Nezmy, good to see you again!

A Cythera DnD campaign sounds brilliant :D I don't think anyone has done that before, though maybe some of the pages on Wizzy's website, such as the monster stats page, could help? He also has pages for all the items in the game, how much damage offensive spells do, etc. Maybe some of the experiments we've done, like how much damage different weapons do could come in handy. I don't know that much about DnD, so I'm not sure what exactly you'd need, but do let us know if there's some specific data you need, and we might be able to find it ^_^ I really wish I could watch this campaign play out!

Depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for things you can hand out to players, the hintbook might have some pages you could print-out as-is. Some of the books, like the bestiaries, might also be decent handouts (or references for yourself).

So's this a "play as native Cytherans" campaign or a "randoms washed up from the Void" campaign?

BreadWorldMercy453, on 20 March 2018 - 03:27 PM, said:

I think as long as the stats are balanced between the two rule sets then it will work out. I might homebrew stuff into DnD spells/objects to streamline. All those resources will be great. I might record the second one that I do!

Pallas Athene, on 20 March 2018 - 05:56 PM, said:

These are perfect because I'd want to DM the game and be a lore bank. I'm already kind of familiar with everything but I def need to know more.

ScratSkinner, on 21 March 2018 - 08:32 AM, said:

So no one I've met in real life has played Cythera and knows it's cool story and I'd want to share that. I'd pre-make all characters accept for Belephorin (or however you spell it lol) and let them be the person summoned from the void. Meanwhile the other characters to play will be the companions in the game like Hector and Meleager and maybe even the rat catcher too.I might even rework the character arcs a bit so that the peripheral characters have more of a central role in the final outcome of the story.

Slayer's guide has the minimaps of everything but is it possible to get all the high-res maps? I can't remember if anyone's stitched those together or not

Looks like Pallas Athene compiled contents of the books and dialogue but the links are down from this post. Anyone have a back up or know him?

http://www.ambrosias...dpost&p=1813809

(I've sent him a PM but maybe there's a better way)

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 27 March 2018 - 11:59 PM

Two Jacks, on 27 March 2018 - 11:48 PM, said:

Yeah, Wizard did: http://www.cytheraguides.com/maps/

Two Jacks, on 27 March 2018 - 11:48 PM, said:

http://www.cytheraguides.com/dialogue/

I've only played DnD like twice in my life, but in general I'd second 453's suggestion of taking a look through Wizard's site. It's pretty comprehensive.

Buzzzzy, on 28 March 2018 - 02:37 PM, said:

Fantastic. I looked once before but definitely not thuroughly enough. All I need now is books and I think I'll have everything I need. Also, nice to see you Buzzzzy.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 30 March 2018 - 03:12 PM

Good to see you both again, Two Jacks and Buzzzzy . I hope that all is going well for both of you.

I'd agree that Wizard's site is likely to have pretty much everything you need. The only other reference that hasn't been posted here so far is my youtube playthrough of the game, but I'm inclined to suspect its helpfulness is less than some of the other linked references.

Two Jacks, on 30 March 2018 - 03:12 PM, said:

Um, I think you still haven't looked very thoroughly? Wizzy's website has the books too.

I didn't think to recommend Sely's youtube playthrough, but now that he's brought it up, I think it could be really helpful. If there's any scenario in the game you can't remember very well, you could search for it in the youtube playthrough topic and watch the corresponding video ^_^ (Or you could just ask us here or on #cythera, I know I for one am always happy to talk about Cythera :D).

Selax, on 31 March 2018 - 07:39 PM, said:

Thank you! That might be handy to peruse.

BreadWorldMercy453, on 31 March 2018 - 08:04 PM, said:

Yup, you're right I did not!

Thank you all for the help I'm going to start reading and compiling things. By the end of this I hope to have an expansion guide that anyone can use to replicate the playthrough.

Could anyone grap me a picture of all the hand drawn maps in the game please? Can't seem to find them on Wizard's site...

Also general Lore question. I know a lot of discussion and dissection has been made to the plot and lore of Cythera. Is all of that updated and added to Wizard's website? Or at least is it composited somewhere besides yalls lovely brains?


Also I'd just like to say what a wonderful Job was done on Wizard's Cythera website. It's so detailed and well made. Yall are great and I'm glad we all share a love for Cythera.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 02 April 2018 - 10:28 PM

Pallas Athene, on 20 March 2018 - 05:56 PM, said:

Two Jacks, on 27 March 2018 - 11:48 PM, said:

Happy to help

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PMs aren’t that useful anymore, since email notifications are broken. I was going to say that IRC might be better, but you’re there already now.

Pallas Athene, on 04 April 2018 - 11:32 AM, said:

Yikes, yeah I'm useless and need to read more carefully lol

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 04 April 2018 - 11:50 AM

No worries. While I’m thinking of it, a few DM-specific notes:

There are two points in Cythera where making the wrong choice means immediately losing. In the game, that’s fine; you just go back to a saved game. You might need to write alternate scenes that are recoverable.

The Landking Amulet is definitely a useful item, especially if you’re DMing for relatively new players. The mechanism of the gem slowly cracking (10 uses) might not work as well, because initially it might feel like death has no consequence, and later, they’d be afraid to rely on it at all. Maybe instead give it four gems (4 uses) that break individually and immediately? Less uses probably makes sense, because the game ought to be balanced to make death unlikely anyway. Even if you can recover from death, you have to sit out of the game for a while.

Directed Nexus is a good way to cheese yourself out of any difficult fight. Give it a longer (1-minute) casting time, maybe?

It would be cool to get a Think-a-Dot and customize it, but the players might think that was a bit silly

Pallas Athene, on 14 April 2018 - 02:22 AM, said:

Thanks for the notes. For the end game scenarios I actually am okay if they all die and it's game over, or if they make the wrong choice. Might even get some spin off quests or something completely unexpected could develop due to the nature of how DnD works.

After thinking it over I'm going to give the amulet 3 charges just to get the kinks out of the combat.

Definitely a long casting time for direct nexus. I'd say 5min non-combat casting time.

As far as a think a dot, I'll probably just have them use the virtual one on the website hehe



SO, for anyone who wants to read what I have so far as my story/dialogue script feel free to read this as I update it. I think this is going to take a very long time to complete:
https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

Two Jacks, on 31 March 2018 - 09:17 PM, said:

You're welcome. I'm glad to be able to help and hope things continue to go well in your endeavor.

MIght be a bit late, but had you considered pestering gandreas about his sequel notions? I vaguely recollect him saying something about learning more about Omen, and this might be helpful if your players manage to get him in a position where they might wrangle answers out of him not found in canon. (think he also did some roleplaying game stuff, too)

(gonna feel real silly if you've already got a lot of prep on Omen in that doc I haven't read yet)

Off to a great start, Nezmy! ^_^ Thanks for letting us read it!

ScratSkinner, on 18 June 2018 - 10:51 PM, said:

That's a great idea, anyone know where I can reach him at? Also anyone know if he'd be bothered by a question like that? I seem to remember seeing somewhere that he isn't happy about role playing going on with his work

BreadWorldMercy453, on 19 June 2018 - 12:43 PM, said:

Thanks 453! there will be more...

My impression is that Mr Andreas has no interest in Cythera anymore and wants to forget it ever happened ): I don't think he'd be willing to discuss what his intentions were for the sequel. But hopefully I'm wrong, it'd be cool on so many levels if he actually does it!

Yeah, unless something has changed in the last few years, I doubt gandreas is interested in divulging Cythera 2 plot ideas. My impression is less that he has no interest in Cythera anymore, and more that he doesn't want to release sequel ideas unless he's making a sequel.

TJ, if you still want to try, he was active on his board about a year ago, so there's a chance he'd respond to a PM or something there.

This post has been edited by Buzzzzy: 21 June 2018 - 08:34 AM

I'll probably hit up Andreas later on once this is a more cohesive whole. In the meantime I have some questions about the finer points of the story of Cythera. Is there a synopsis or notes on this somewhere? I tried searching the forums but maybe it's broken because it wasn't working for me.

My main question right now is why are the ruffians in LKH? I know it has to do with Kesh but I want to be able to expand on this/set it up better within my campaign.

I'm most likely going to have more questions like this.

You know, that's never really covered in the game :\

The ruffian's name was Aeneas. He was killed in an earthquake at the beginning of the game, and he was carrying kesh at the time. The only info about him that I remember comes from Sacas' dialogue:

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And Lindus only responds to the prompt with:

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Due to the kesh connection, we can assume that Aeneas was employed by House Comana / the Undine. But exactly what they hoped to learn by sending a spy to LKH is unclear to me. Does anyone else have anything to add? Did I miss anything?

Edit: As for a synopsis of the plot, I don't think such a thing exists ): Fiery started a Cythera wiki a long time ago, but I never got around to contributing to it ): That'd probably be pretty helpful for stuff like this. The dialogue and narration pages will have most of the plot info buried in there somewhere, but finding it may be a nuisance.

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 07 July 2018 - 06:26 PM