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- Hero
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- From: Ontario, Canada
- Registered: 2/05/2014
- Posts: 489
Teamwork
Something I've noticed is missing from all iterations of BoL is the idea of teamwork when resolving a task. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the best way of representing more than one person working together to achieve a task? An example might be someone helping a doctor stabilize a person dying from his wounds; another might be a group of individuals conducting an organised and systematic search of a room. For me, having each character make a roll is a rather poor solution and doesn't help create that atmosphere of a team working well together.
I know it's easy to houserule something like this but I'd be interested to hear other peoples suggestions (especially Simon if he has any thoughts).
Wealth can be wonderful, but you know, success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary.
- Venomous Filigree
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- Registered: 6/18/2014
- Posts: 91
Re: Teamwork
When I brought this up with a friend his response was that in most S&S, the protagonists are quite self serving, so maybe this is why it's not a feature.
That being said an easy way (for me) to add both helping and hindering, is as a bonus dice or penalty dice, if someone has a relevant career.
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- The GIT!
- Hero
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- From: Ontario, Canada
- Registered: 2/05/2014
- Posts: 489
Re: Teamwork
Yeah, I thought about a penalty/bonus die as well. Just feels that maybe adjusting the difficulty might be another option - maybe +1 per person helping to a maximum of +/-4? I was thinking of combining teamwork with extended checks to help create moments of tension (probably more appropriate in modern/future settings).
Wealth can be wonderful, but you know, success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary.
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Thread Starter- jasales
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- Registered: 7/03/2014
- Posts: 145
Re: Teamwork
We used some team work tasks in my last BotV game. We lessened the difficutly by a step for each contributing (ie. make their roll) helper.
It seemed intuitive and worked well.
Last edited by jasales (9/10/2014 7:02 am)
- The GIT!
- Hero
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- From: Ontario, Canada
- Registered: 2/05/2014
- Posts: 489
Re: Teamwork
I initially thought about doing that and I can see how it will work well. I'm also giving some thought to allowing each person's career rating a bearing on the task at hand. let me put some thoughts together and I'll share them here.
Wealth can be wonderful, but you know, success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary.
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Thread Starter- jasales
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- Posts: 145
Re: Teamwork
Cool. Someone at our table brought up how the person's career added in. I said it added in, in the sense of how well they rolled. You DO NOT want everyone to help, some of them can make things worse. 
- Grimwulf
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- Registered: 8/19/2014
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Re: Teamwork
When I run Honor & Intrigue [I have yet to run BoL with more than a single player], I usually allow the group to choose the character with the highest applicable career to roll, though sometimes the player initiates the roll, then that character will be used instead. Then any other character with an applicable career can add one to the roll.
Sometimes, in sneaky situations, I instead get the highest career with sneakiness to make the roll, subtracting one for every character attempting to sneak with out a career. It is perhaps overly kind of me to do it this way. But I figure that the sneaky ones are working hard trying to keep the oafs from clankking, knocking stuff over, and stepping on dry twigs.
- The GIT!
- Hero
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Re: Teamwork
Grimwulf wrote:
When I run Honor & Intrigue [I have yet to run BoL with more than a single player], I usually allow the group to choose the character with the highest applicable career to roll, though sometimes the player initiates the roll, then that character will be used instead. Then any other character with an applicable career can add one to the roll.
I like this. I was thinking, however, of possibly allowing a bonus equal to half the helping career but topping off the bonuses to +4. That way you could have two excellent surgeons working together and the second surgeon can give a useful bonus but you can also limit the stupid situation where the world and its wife decide to help a person repair an engine.
Sometimes, in sneaky situations, I instead get the highest career with sneakiness to make the roll, subtracting one for every character attempting to sneak with out a career. It is perhaps overly kind of me to do it this way. But I figure that the sneaky ones are working hard trying to keep the oafs from clankking, knocking stuff over, and stepping on dry twigs.
I totally support group sneak rolls (and conversely I believe its better to have group notice rolls as well) and I like the idea of the expert helping and advising the other members of his group.
I really like to encourage teamwork in my games and I think these ideas can help with that.
Wealth can be wonderful, but you know, success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary.
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Thread Starter