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It's called the Action Economy, not Action Monopoly!
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StMichael wrote:
It's called the Action Economy, not Action Monopoly!
In my defense, "Action Monopoly" sounds like a fun game. Moreso than regular Monopoly!
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StMichael - an option from the Everywhen rules may provide an answer to your concern about villains getting stuffed before they can act. Hopefully the boys at EW won't mind me giving you this brief snippet of the rules. (NB: In EW Villains are known as Rivals)
“Rival-level NPCs have access to all the usual Hero Point options, but truly dastardly rivals can use these additional Hero Points options:
Diabolical Plan
Rivals with this boon go before heroes with a success in the priority order in a combat.
Meat Shield
Rivals can spend a Hero Point to use nearby rabble as ‘meat shields’ to absorb all damage caused by a single blow – similar to the Hero Point option Splintered Shield, Shattered Sword (p.32). For example, in a dogfight, rabble will be wingmen for their rival leader, who will be only too happy spending a Hero Point on Meat Shield to let his wingmen take the hit!
Timely Escape
If things are going badly, rivals can spend a Hero Point to escape from the heroes, with a bit of GM-narration:
Whilst their attention is elsewhere, the rival slips around a corner…
Just as they are about to advance on the evil necromancer, he smiles and turns, opening a secret panel in the wall by which he makes his escape…
The rival falls over the edge of a cliff, but when the heroes look down to see his broken body, he isn’t there…
However the rival does it, he escapes, to begin some other despicable plot. Combined with the Defy Death (p.32) option, a rival can use this to escape even when he appears dead to the heroes. He must have the opportunity to slip away – so the heroes must have their attention elsewhere for him to be able to make use of his Hero Points in this way.”
Use of these Villain only boons is also a good way to use up their Villain Points before the big boss fight at the end.
Last edited by Gruntfuttock (6/05/2024 10:47 am)
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StMichael wrote:
It just seems a little weird that three different groups of Heroes go one after another before anyone on the other side gets a go - and with six PCs and somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty Hero Points floating around, it seems like its gonna be pretty common that someone has a Legendary or Mighty Success on Priority. So, I think that Legendary - Mighty - Villain - Success etc. will work a little better, and make Mighty+ Successes on Priority a bit more meaningful. Otherwise, given that y'all seem able to kick my NPCs' asses (at least in every other system) pretty freely despite what I do, I'm afraid combat will be over before the bad guys even have a chance.
If I'm wrong, it should become obvious pretty quickly, and we can change back.
Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the Priority Roll. I actually use the old BoL Legendary system for Initiative, which allows enemies to also roll. Also, for duels, I actually have them roll initiative each round and, further, I use the weapons characteristics to determine the die they roll for initiative as follows...
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Ohh...I like what you've done there!
I'm happy with the current intiative led priority roll as it is, but if I did switch I might steal this. A very elegant and simple way to model the differing speeds of delivering hurt.
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The GIT! wrote:
StMichael wrote:
It just seems a little weird that three different groups of Heroes go one after another before anyone on the other side gets a go - and with six PCs and somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty Hero Points floating around, it seems like its gonna be pretty common that someone has a Legendary or Mighty Success on Priority. So, I think that Legendary - Mighty - Villain - Success etc. will work a little better, and make Mighty+ Successes on Priority a bit more meaningful. Otherwise, given that y'all seem able to kick my NPCs' asses (at least in every other system) pretty freely despite what I do, I'm afraid combat will be over before the bad guys even have a chance.
If I'm wrong, it should become obvious pretty quickly, and we can change back.Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the Priority Roll. I actually use the old BoL Legendary system for Initiative, which allows enemies to also roll. Also, for duels, I actually have them roll initiative each round and, further, I use the weapons characteristics to determine the die they roll for initiative as follows...
- Damage D6H weapons, use the number from the lower die for next round initiative.
- Damage D6L weapons, use the number from the higher number for next round initiative.
- Damage D6 weapons, roll two dice and choose which number to use for damage and which number for next round initiative.
Essentially, more damaging weapons tend to be a bit slower, lower damage weapons tend to be a bit quicker, and well balanced weapons can sacrifice speed for damage, or vice versa.
I know you proposed something like this when I was working on Mythic Edition, but I couldn't see it working. Can't remember what my issue with it was now.
Are you rolling for "damage" every round, whether you hit your opponent or not?
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SimonW wrote:
The GIT! wrote:
StMichael wrote:
It just seems a little weird that three different groups of Heroes go one after another before anyone on the other side gets a go - and with six PCs and somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty Hero Points floating around, it seems like its gonna be pretty common that someone has a Legendary or Mighty Success on Priority. So, I think that Legendary - Mighty - Villain - Success etc. will work a little better, and make Mighty+ Successes on Priority a bit more meaningful. Otherwise, given that y'all seem able to kick my NPCs' asses (at least in every other system) pretty freely despite what I do, I'm afraid combat will be over before the bad guys even have a chance.
If I'm wrong, it should become obvious pretty quickly, and we can change back.Honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the Priority Roll. I actually use the old BoL Legendary system for Initiative, which allows enemies to also roll. Also, for duels, I actually have them roll initiative each round and, further, I use the weapons characteristics to determine the die they roll for initiative as follows...
- Damage D6H weapons, use the number from the lower die for next round initiative.
- Damage D6L weapons, use the number from the higher number for next round initiative.
- Damage D6 weapons, roll two dice and choose which number to use for damage and which number for next round initiative.
Essentially, more damaging weapons tend to be a bit slower, lower damage weapons tend to be a bit quicker, and well balanced weapons can sacrifice speed for damage, or vice versa.I know you proposed something like this when I was working on Mythic Edition, but I couldn't see it working. Can't remember what my issue with it was now.
Are you rolling for "damage" every round, whether you hit your opponent or not?
Firstly, I only really use this in a dueling scenario, as it does generate quite a lot of extra math management if you ues it all the time.
In answer to your question, yes, I do have the players roll damage even if they miss, to represent the effort the character put in to the attack. Also, for weapons that do D6 damage, the player has to announce which die will be for damage and which for initiative, before the attack roll is made - this is to represent the character's intentions with the attack.
A more efficient option with my houserule is to actually use the attack dice for the damage and initiative as well. This removes the need to roll for damage even if the attack misses, and also means the attack rolls directly impact the damage and initiative.
Last edited by The GIT! (6/06/2024 7:48 am)
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Circling back, because we had our first major combat in last night's session!
I was happy with how things went with my character (Thief 2, Mercenary 1, so a bit more Gray Mouser than Fafhrd). Got in a good lick with my sabre against a shadow demon (tangible enough that steel worked). Since I had no Strength bonus on my damage, dropped a Hero Point to pop it to a Mighty Success and chose Bloody Slash to add 6 to my damage. It's nice that there's a mechanism for a 'little guy' to significantly boost damage done.
Still having a bit of trouble remembering the mechanics. A few more sessions should make them second nature, though. You would think the formulas (Task Roll: 2d6+Attribute+Career-Difficulty / Attack Roll: 2d6+Attribute+Combat Ability-Defense / Priority Roll: 2d6+Mind+Initiative) would be easy enough to remember! Especially since St. M created a character spreadsheet that has them written out in a sidebar.
I think the biggest hitch for Task Rolls is remembering which Boons give a Bonus Die for what activity (same with Flaws).
All in all, it was a satisfying session. We overcame our prison guards, disarming them and then giving their weapons back in a way they did not prefer. Our not-a-minotaur barbarian pulled the arm off a sorcerer that was trying to zap him. There was much sneaking and stabbing and sorcery.
I'm really looking forward to when I (and the rest of the group) get really comfortable with the rules. Things should really speed along, in the grand Sword and Sorcery tradition, once we do.
Oh, yeah. And a figure from my character's past popped up and has him paranoid as all get out at this point.
[Even here I misremembered the Priority forumula. Put Agility instead of Mind first time around!]
Last edited by CaptAdventure (7/08/2024 2:12 pm)
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Don't worry about it Paul, it'll come soon with a few games under your belt. And I confess that I've done similar, even after 100s of games, if I'm tired or excited (and we should be excited, right?)
I like to run combat as fast as I can, probably as a reaction against those players I've known who like to slow combat down to a slow motion chess game on a high gravity world. So sometimes I miss out stuff even now - not often, but sometimes.
Anywho, it sounds like the game was a blast!
Last edited by Gruntfuttock (7/09/2024 4:11 am)
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Gruntfuttock wrote:
I like to run combat as fast as I can, probably as a reaction against those players I've known who like to slow combat down to a slow motion chess game on a high gravity world.
Well put!
Even as a player, I sometimes get frustrated with the "let's stop and try to account for every contingency before we start" approach. I think it comes primarily from people who have played with Old School Antagonistic GMs. They're afraid (sometimes subconsciously) that they'll do the wrong thing and bet screwed.