FORUM

First, I must say, as more of this game appears on your board, the more inclined I find myself to purchase and run this puppy. It does look like fun. Which leads me to my first question, what is this thing going to cost and when can I order it?

We all know that a good game is about mood and characters and role-playing much more than it is about rules and number crunching. However, that said, I was perusing your fine combat primer, and a few questions did occur to me.

First, you aver that guessing ones opponents chosen combat maneuver is part of the fun of the game, and so it would seem. Therefore, it is obvious that waiting until ones opponent moves his marker to his next maneuver, and then choosing your own maneuver accordingly, might be advantageous for a player so inclined to take illegitimate advantage of another. Not, of course, that any of my players would do such an unsportsmanlike thing (no, really, no  ), but should I perhaps be gaming with a different group, one perhaps a bit more competitive with each other, what mechanism would you suggest to avoid such disgraceful conduct? I suppose we could supply each player with “player screens”, similar to the traditional GM’s Screen, but this strikes me as cumbersome, liable to take up too much room on a small table, and certain to interfere with reaching for the chips.

Second, a question arises on page 4. Must a character change maneuvers at each action? For example: Jude is face to face with Lionel. He chooses to start his combat with “Arrow Stab”. Now, his possible next move is either “Aim and Breathe” or “Tumble and Shoot’, or he can rebalance at ‘Archer’s Shot’ or ‘Shot on the Run”. Or, quite logically to me, can he repeat his “Arrow Stab” (jabbing it into his opponent over and over again, screaming “Die, Lionel, die!!!”). It strike’s me as a perfectly logical action, but I have not looked at it in terms of all the maneuvers. I would assume that with maneuvers like “Aim and Breathe” the plus one die size the next round would apply only to the next round, and multiple “Aim and Breathe’s “ would not stack. Or should they?

Third, again from page 4, a question on exploding dice. The rule states that “if you roll a maximum score on a die, you roll the next higher die size” and take the better of the two results. The question is, does that second die also explode? If, for example I roll a four on a d4, then I get to roll a d6. If I then roll a six on that die, do I now get to roll a d8?

Fourth, on page 5, it states that if an attack is listed as dX/dX, it means the character can attack twice, and they may be at separate targets. Does that mean that the maximum number of targets a character can attack in a round is two? Multiple defense dice are good against any number of attackers. The text seems to imply that attack and defense work differently here, but, to avoid arguments with rules lawyers, perhaps it should be clarified somewhat. Or have I misinterpreted here and in fact you can attack everyone in the room? The text under “Targeting and Round Length” on page four, “you are assumed to be engaged with… all other creatures in your area” and “You can target any other creature in your area with a melee attack” seems to imply that the character can engage any number of opponents.

Fifth, dice wrap. It think I understand it but….. In the example, it states that “a d12 attack in increased by three die sizes. It becomes a d20 and a d6.’ Shouldn’t that be a d20 and a d4? Or am I not understanding this feature after all.

And lastly, the jump between d12 and d 20 seems, as others have commented, rather steep. Have you considered interposing a d16 (rolled as 2d8)? Then, instead of the increment going 2,2,2,2,2,8, it would go 2,2,2,2,2,4,4, which strikes me as a less unbalanced progression. Or it could always be an optional or house rule.

I’m looking forward to seeing your response to these questions.

Sincerely,

Josh

Heya, thanks for that. I've noted a couple of things to clarify in the final book. To answer your questions:

1) It's going to be $9.99 pdf, 250 pages at a minimum, from RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. There will also be a print-on-demand hardcopy available, probably from Amazon's CreateSpace. It will be softcover and full-color. Both will go on sale at the start of Gen Con this year. That's August 13th, 2009. I can't wait!

2) Yeah, if you're playing with players like that, it's tough. I'd say the best thing to do is jot down the initials of your maneuver on a scrap piece of paper (and, if need be, the initials of your target). I've actually done that for a few playtest combats just to have a running tally of what maneuvers come up when, kind of like a chess match's list of moves. They can be fun to analyze, believe it or not. But maybe that's just the design geek in me talking. :)

3) You can absolutely repeat actions. As long as there's no (r) to indicate a rebalance after a maneuver, the style teaches you how to transition from the final position of the maneuver back to the beginning, allowing you to execute it again in rapid succession. And you're right about "next round": that only applies to next round. However, "next attack" does stack because it's next attack, not next round. So you could Feint a bunch of times in a row, throwing your opponent more and more off-guard each time, and then have a real good chance of hitting. Of course, by then, you might be cut to ribbons by an opponent who wonders why you're standing there faking instead of fighting!

4) Yep, if your attack is dX/dY, you only get to make two attacks. They can be against the same target or two different targets, but you cannot attack more than two targets, no matter how many are in your area.

5) That's right about dice wrap. No d2 on dice wrap because it is not useful enough often enough. There are d2s in other parts of the game, of course - but not for dice wrap.

6) The d12 to d20 jump appears steep, but it's actually not. True, it's steeper than d10 to d12, but if you look at it, the die size increases have been slowly diminishing in utility from d2 to d12. I mean, d2 to d4 is a HUGE jump. Your maximum roll doubles and your median is 1.67 times greater. By the time you get to d10 to d12, however, your maximum roll only increases by 1.2 and your median also increases by 1.2 (slightly less actually). Then d12 to d20 really just brings the whole thing back into balance because the maximum roll increases by a factor of 1.67 and the median is 1.62 times greater. So d12 to d20 is steep compared to d10 to d12, but it's actually a smaller relative jump than d2 to d4.
There are other reasons to keep the d20 there besides smoother math. For one, the idea of diminishing returns followed up at some point by a smashing, rousing breakthrough can be fun. Hard work and persistence pay off in the end. The diminishing returns up to that point make the jump seem bigger than it really is, which works great (it lets the player feel super powerful, which is great, without putting him so far out of reach that a commoner at d6 doesn't still have a puncher's chance against him). Another reason is that it gives the GM a tool for modeling very powerful effects. Players take notice when bad guys start rolling d20s. And that's another reason - it's just fun, it's an interest-grabber, and a goal to shoot for.
I don't want to go to 2d8 because of the skewed probability curve. 2d8 gives a much different probability curve than 1d16. The single die rolls are more appropriate for SK for a lot of reasons. One is the goal of no post-roll math; not even adding two numbers together. Another is the fact that it's just quicker to roll one die. Another is that the single-die probability curve is, in one sense, more random than the curved distribution you get from rolling two dice and adding them together. And magic, one of the themes, is all about entropy and randomness. There are other reasons too. All that said, of course, if your group wants to do it that way, then by all means, go for it! I am a huge proponent of tweaking games to make them fit your own style.

Greetings

Doing a few run throughs last night I had a couple of questions on the combat preview.

1. Free Sword. Decoy Jab - the style chart is ambiguous as to whether the +1 is a +1 to the die roll or a +1 die size. The gloss makes clear it is to die size - could this be clearer on the chart?

2. Savage. Does Slam have an effect or is this just indicating that the character has shoulder barged or similar the opponent?

3. The Court Sword against Savage was an interesting one - in a single arena type area there is no ability for moving the opponenent, climbing or diving but actually the Court Sword found it difficult to deal with repeated Fury Strikes.

4. At what point can you announce use of an inspiration/mood? While it is clearly after your roll can you announce after you know the result of your opponent's attack/defence? If you use inspiration/mood can your opponent then do the same? Presumably only one mood/inspiration can be used per combat round per person?

Possibly more later.

Regards

Edward

Hello Edward! Welcome!

1. Absolutely! Thanks for the feedback. Noted!

2. Slam does 1 damage (body). The default is actually 1 body damage, so if nothing else is listed (like for Slash in Free Sword style), then the effect is 1 body damge. If something does no damage, it will say 0. I'll try to make that clearer in the Combat chapter.

3. Excellent! I'd love to hear some more details. Did you run it assuming that the Court Sword artist had no reputation with the savage, so that Lord's Punishment and Lord's Stance were not available? Savage is a great straight-ahead, bash-em-in-the-face style (the straight line and simplicity of the style sheet are supposed to echo that, by the by). So I am not surprised that it excelled even when it couldn't use its climbing and diving maneuvers. It's an interesting battle, Court Sword vs. Savage - the prince vs. the prodigal child returned to claim a birthright, perhaps!

4. Answer is yes to pretty much every question there! You can only use an inspiration once per combat, but you can use it after you see your roll or your opponent's roll. He can then escalate also and use an inspiration of his own. As to whether or not you can use two or more inspirations on the same action and continue the escalation - that's actually a point that we kind of go back and forth on in playtesting. Both sides ways have been fun. So any feedback there is very appreciated!