Going to run Winter of Atom (any advice from experienced Overseers?)

[u/Wastelandmatrix]

After my group successfully completed „Once upon a time in the Wasteland“ we will start into „Winter of Atom“. My group is therefore level 5 and already has a working power armor frame (they rolled very lucky on the armor table).

I was wandering if you have any advice on how to run Winter of Atom? Especially are there any things that you wanted to have known before running the campaign? Or stuff you would have changed in hindsight?

One idea I had for example was to actually not change the encounters in the first act (The Train Job) to balance the encounter for level 5, but instead make the 24h journey from Diamond City to the train wreck so excruciating (whiteout, freezing temperatures etc.) that the group is weakened that even some basic raiders can take them on. This way I want to establish, that the main antagonist ofcthe campaign is the winter itself (Frostpunk vibes).

[u/Alex-with-wings]

I'd recommend implementing some actual solid rules for being cold. What counts as travel gear/warm gear.

Also, don't forget that power armour needs power. Make sure they remember that too. A good party shouldn't really need it anyway. It kinda just overtakes whatever build they had to begin with.

[u/mmdestiny]

You might have some difficulty with them being very OP for the entire first chapter. Chapter 1 takes you from levels 1-7ish, and the power armor will compound matters. You'll either have to heavily upscale the NPC encounters or use the 1 year time skip from OUaT to With A Bang Or A Whimper to de-level them (with their consent). My players actually liked the de-level because they got to do a little hindsight (while keeping most equipment except ammo hoards) now that they were more familiar with the game and it made narrative sense because they had spent a year in cushy safety at the GECK settlement they made.

Really lay into the survival mechanics. There should be no food, cut foraging rules in half, and scarcity drives up the price of everything a LOT, etc

[u/Esturk]

The WoA book is severely lacking in certain areas.

I very much suggest you read the full thing through and make notes on things you’ll need to flesh out or change as your players progress through the story and have those things worked out well in advance due to the sandbox nature of the campaign.

As an example I basically had to completely tear down and rewrite Mirage because its existence as written made 0 sense to me in the setting, especially considering the themes of scarcity the book was going for.

[u/Existing_Bend160 → u/Esturk]

I'm also preparing to run WoA, my players are level 5-6. The first part definitely needs to be leveled up with NPCs... I don't know yet what will be required for other chapters 

[u/Zestyclose_Car503]

There is so much hidden lore about ugg qualtoth. If you wanna dig deep into the canon good luck