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Post by chrism on Sept 13, 2015 10:20:13 GMT -5
1) Skills I'm really confused about how skills work. It seems implied that multiple levels can be taken of any skill, but only a few skills (e.g. weapon skill) seem to have any effect for multiple levels. My guess is that all skills grant a bonus per level (e.g. if I make a climb check and I have ST 12 and Climb +2, I would test against 14, not 12), but this is nowhere stated.
2) Diplomacy I don't get what this skill does exactly. Here's my theory - I encounter some dwarves and can either talk (para 10) or fight (para 20). I choose talk, and go to 10. It turns out that was a bad idea (they now just attack me with initiative) so I test diplomacy (IQ + diplomacy levels, per theory above). If I pass, I can flip to 20 instead. (Or vice versa if I chose to fight first). Is that right?
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Post by chrism on Sept 13, 2015 11:49:19 GMT -5
More questions (mostly about specific skills)
3) Climb, Charisma, Literacy, Streetwise, Sailor, etc: I'm assuming these skills without specific rules do nothing unless the adventure calls for them?
4) Leadership: Is there any limit on this? Can a character test leadership for every check every other character makes to give them a boost at no cost? Seems amazing if so
5) Herbalist: What are 'herb doses'? Are these something that can be bought during adventures? Is there any constraint on potion creation other than access to herbs (e.g. like 1XP for alchemist potions)
6) Alchemist/Herbalist potions: Do these cost an action to use during combat? Are additional actions required to 'switch weapons' to the potion? Can an herbalist potion be applied to an incapacitated character to save him at the end of combat?
7) Crafts: What's the skilled labor rate (i.e. how much do you earn per day)?
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Post by chrism on Sept 13, 2015 14:49:34 GMT -5
Still more (based on starting to play through The Sorceror's Manor):
8) When a space is lit on fire by a fireball, does it do an additional 2 damage to the target immediately? Does the fire effect keep inflicting damage every turn that a character stands in the space? If so, when (start of turn, end of turn, during that character's action)?
9) Does a Takedown require having MA left (e.g. if you have 5MA, can you move 5 spaces and then attempt a Takedown)?
10) Is it possible to flee combat? Doesn't seem so.
11) What is an "encounter" for the purposes of fatigue recovery? Only a combat?
12) If an opponent is IQ:NA (e.g. living statue) is it immune to direct spells?
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 11:04:45 GMT -5
1) Skills I'm really confused about how skills work. It seems implied that multiple levels can be taken of any skill, but only a few skills (e.g. weapon skill) seem to have any effect for multiple levels. My guess is that all skills grant a bonus per level (e.g. if I make a climb check and I have ST 12 and Climb +2, I would test against 14, not 12), but this is nowhere stated. 2) Diplomacy I don't get what this skill does exactly. Here's my theory - I encounter some dwarves and can either talk (para 10) or fight (para 20). I choose talk, and go to 10. It turns out that was a bad idea (they now just attack me with initiative) so I test diplomacy (IQ + diplomacy levels, per theory above). If I pass, I can flip to 20 instead. (Or vice versa if I chose to fight first). Is that right? Hey, Chrism, Welcome to the boards! We appreciate questions, as it makes us re-examine our phraseology for clarity. Thanks! Sometimes we have played the game for so long, we miss things when we do an edit. 1) I was about to point out where it is stated - and it seems in our most recent iteration of the rules, it is not clear. Your guess is exactly right - the skill adds to the stat for purposes of the check. Your example is accurate. We'll clarify in our next edit. 2)Our skills enter play one of two ways. One is in an adventure, where the instruction gives you the option to employ it. For Example, "You discover more information if you pass a 3/IQ against Diplomacy (136)." which means if you have Diplomacy and roll 3d6 under your IQ plus skill level, you go to instruction 136 to uncover more information. The other way skills are used, we try to give each a tangible benefit beyond waht is spelled out in the scenario. In the particular example of Diplomacy, if there are two options at an instructional paragraph, one attack and one talk, and you find that you are forced into the attack option (usually by the events leading to this paragraph), you can attempt to change this by using the Diplomacy skill. While this is not spelled out at the paragraph, you have that option because you have the Diplomacy skill. Continued....
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 11:26:26 GMT -5
More questions (mostly about specific skills) 3) Climb, Charisma, Literacy, Streetwise, Sailor, etc: I'm assuming these skills without specific rules do nothing unless the adventure calls for them? 4) Leadership: Is there any limit on this? Can a character test leadership for every check every other character makes to give them a boost at no cost? Seems amazing if so 5) Herbalist: What are 'herb doses'? Are these something that can be bought during adventures? Is there any constraint on potion creation other than access to herbs (e.g. like 1XP for alchemist potions) 6) Alchemist/Herbalist potions: Do these cost an action to use during combat? Are additional actions required to 'switch weapons' to the potion? Can an herbalist potion be applied to an incapacitated character to save him at the end of combat? 7) Crafts: What's the skilled labor rate (i.e. how much do you earn per day)? 3)Not entirely accurate. Charisma, for example, gives a specific benefit outside the adventure - "control" a non-hostile NPC. This is vague, but it can give you extra muscle for an encounter if you have access to an NPC warrior for example. This is not meant to be mind control, but you convince someone to help you for a brief peiod of time. As far as the other skills you mention, they can be employed in a gamemaster-run adventure, as well. There is nothing to prevent you from climbing a wall at any time - but it may not be relevant to the situation your character is in, whether programmed, game mastered, or just rolling dice solo. 4)Leadership seems clear that it applies to one character's check. Not sure why it could be construed to multiple checks or multiple characters? 5)Herb dose is a very rough unit of measure. In most of our adventures, we phrase it this way, and some stores you go to offers herbs for sale in this manner. The constraint is the number of doses your character has. 6)Our rules are pretty wide open - a necessity for 8 pages! So the nature of many actions are undefined. If your character has his potions in a pack, it would reasonably take "weapon switch" action to get to one. Or perhaps your character has a potion strapped to his wrist so that he might do a "free action" one time. Applying a potion to an incapacitated character at the end of combat is certainly reasonable (and expected). 7)This is entirely campaign-dependent, and beyond that location-dependent. Skilled labor rate might be one silver a day in a remote community, and 3 silvers a day at a crossroads town on a trade route, or 5 silvers a day at Redpoint. Other campaigns might use a gold standard. Not trying to be vague, but this is one of the things we kinda leave up to the player or judge. Continued...
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 11:38:54 GMT -5
Still more (based on starting to play through The Sorceror's Manor): 8) When a space is lit on fire by a fireball, does it do an additional 2 damage to the target immediately? Does the fire effect keep inflicting damage every turn that a character stands in the space? If so, when (start of turn, end of turn, during that character's action)? 9) Does a Takedown require having MA left (e.g. if you have 5MA, can you move 5 spaces and then attempt a Takedown)? 10) Is it possible to flee combat? Doesn't seem so. 11) What is an "encounter" for the purposes of fatigue recovery? Only a combat? 12) If an opponent is IQ:NA (e.g. living statue) is it immune to direct spells? 8)This is one that caught me off-guard. Fireball and Fir eare separate spells, but at some point the last year or so that rule about leaving a Fire in that space snuck in! I don't play that way - Fireball is a sudden thing, and it can certainly catch curtains and whatnot on fire, but I am not sure about leaving a Fire space. Here is the most important thing about the LAW rules - don't like? Change it! It is your game! But getting back to the letter of the rules - I would not have it do damage the same turn as the Fireball. I would give the character a chance to move out. So if the character is still in the space at the end of his movement, he takes 2 St damage. 9)You must be able to enter the defender's space to use a takedown. So if you expend all your movement to get adjacent to a character, you cannot use takedown. 10)Something else that is not spelled out, but use your best guess here. If your characters are in over their heads, let them move to the exit. If they reach it, let them flee the encounter to the previous location. There are instances in adventures where this is not possible, but running away is often the smarter alternative. 11)Yes. 12) Only immune to mental/illusion spells. Thanks, I hope this all helps! Bret
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Post by chrism on Sept 14, 2015 11:55:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the answers, and the game. I'm enjoying my solo run-through of The Sorceror's Manor, and it got me to order a few of your adventures.
Let me clarify that the context I'm asking in is GM-less play of your scripted adventures, that's the only way I'm likely to use these rules. In that light, a few follow-ups:
2) I see, so it doesn't let you peek ahead at one option and then try to choose the other if you don't like it.
3) But all these things require a gamemaster, right? I did see that a few of these skills have come up in Sorceror's Manor. I was a bit disappointed that the trap check I encountered was assisted (INT+ TRAP), though. The wizard (13 INT) had a better chance than the thief (10 INT + 1 Traps).
4) I mean can I keep using it over and over for every check? e.g. wizard rolls int for spell - leader applies leadership. Then bowman tries to fire his bow - leader applies leadership again. Another character is attacked later in the turn and attempts to dodge - leader applies leadership. If you have decent int you could are likely to get +Leadership bonus to every roll this way.
7) Gotcha, but in the context of GM-less play, do any of the adventures offer numbers for this (e.g. can you spend some downtime crafting for cash)?
8) Thanks. I tend to agree that this makes Fireball a bit better than it probably should be.
10) Okay, thanks. I could definitely see how this could be abused to cheese monsters, so I think I will impose a house rule that you have to spend at least one turn in combat, and then a full turn doing nothing (free shots for the enemy) to flee.
12) So other direct spells auto-succeed? Are spells like clumsiness considered mental?
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 14:40:34 GMT -5
Hey, chrism,
Glad you are enjoying the adventure!
2) Nope!
3) Well, lots of our customers are solitaire players, due to geography or no nearby group or just running this on the side or whatever, so there isn't always a gamemaster. I've got quite a few campaigns I have set up purely solitaire, writing up the in-between adventure stuuf with a few rolls of the dice and expanding it with exposition. So a lot of the skill rolls are left up to you to judge where and when.
As far as TSM, that was one of the early free adventures, before we codified the required/assissted skill checks mechanic. Your pointing this out tells me we should perhaps go back and re-edit.
4) "Add Leadership to one character's check..." definitely means ONE character per turn; you as a leader are sacrificing your entire turn to assisst ONE character's check. Not EACH character for the turn. The "one character" does not narrow this down? We would definitely be open to re-wording to make it clearer...
7) A good question, there was a section touching on this in Fire in the Streets, in the Campaign guide portion, but I don't believe we have spelled it out anywhere definitively.
12)Hah! This is why it is good to have other eyes check our work. This is another thing that has chnged over the years, from when we first started giving IQ NA for base undead. The direct spells requiring you to win an IQ check is a newer rule. We need to address what happens when casting a direct spell vs. IQNA creatures, but I always judge that if you succeed in your IQ check to cast the spell vs. such undead (ie, a regular IQ check rather than an opposed IQ check) you succeed.
Clumsiness affects the physical state of a skeleton, so not mental.
Thanks!
Bret
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Post by chrism on Sept 14, 2015 15:17:18 GMT -5
4) Ah, the source of my confusion was that I didn't realize it requires an action to do this. I guess that it is unlimited out-of-combat though (since there are no 'turns')>
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Post by ednote on Sept 14, 2015 19:26:05 GMT -5
Chrism, great questions.
Ed
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 21:16:07 GMT -5
Ed is 100% right - these are great questions, and it has caused us to rethink a couplke of things. For instance, the Diplomacy skill. We are thinking that maybe it should do what you are alluding to above - if you have an attack option and a talk option, you can read ahead to both options if you pass your 3/IQ gaianst Diplomacy, and choose the option you prefer. That is much more specific, and defines why it is a good skill (besides whatever else the particular adventure allows).
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Post by chrism on Sept 14, 2015 21:36:01 GMT -5
One more question that comes to mind - do incapacitated characters suffer any penalty in combat (other than being unable to move or react, obviously). Thinking in particular of the hypnotism effect in this adventure.
I was thinking +3DX or 2DX to attack or something.
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Post by platimus on Sept 14, 2015 22:14:51 GMT -5
Yes, indeed, these were some great questions. Some I have asked before but I guess I was misunderstood or that I misunderstood the answers. For example, I'm pretty sure I had asked before about IQ NA monsters and direct spells. The answer I received led me to believe that IQ NA monsters were immune to ALL direct spells. My bad.
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 23:37:52 GMT -5
Yes, indeed, these were some great questions. Some I have asked before but I guess I was misunderstood or that I misunderstood the answers. For example, I'm pretty sure I had asked before about IQ NA monsters and direct spells. The answer I received led me to believe that IQ NA monsters were immune to ALL direct spells. My bad. Dude, sorry I did not understood your question when asked earlier. Not sure why I didn't re-read what we had written in the rules then! Please feel free to ask, once again, anything else I missed! I am 100% certain I have forgotten some other great points you and others have raised, so we'll try to use this thread as a catalogue for the next iteration of rules.
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Post by mister frau blucher on Sept 14, 2015 23:45:07 GMT -5
One more question that comes to mind - do incapacitated characters suffer any penalty in combat (other than being unable to move or react, obviously). Thinking in particular of the hypnotism effect in this adventure. I was thinking +3DX or 2DX to attack or something. There are some guidelines for this in a few of the advanced rules threads in this section of the boards. But it should be in the basic rules - +3 is what I give to attacks from the rear, and usually I let a character hit an incapacitated enemy automaticallyin melee, or +3 to missile fire (same as from behind for arrows). Maybe it is too good being auto-hit against an incapacitated foe? Hard to miss from up close but maybe you cheese it on a 16-18, like Melee.
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