Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

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YK - Yuri Khavlor
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Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by YK - Yuri Khavlor » Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:04 pm

I am unsure of how a number of rules are applied. If some are DM or Player enforced, selectively enforced due to DM workload, or if they are defunct leftovers from older games.
[+] Death Checks

This one seems to have been applied later in-game, and periodically. If it is a matter of workload, I think it would be easy enough to mock up a spreadsheet to do this function. I would be happy to do the work on this one. A little extra work and it can even account for long lifeblood ability.

Instead of doing the work each turn to roll death checks, and relying on players to post percentages in their turn report. The work would be done once when the character becomes active. The spreadsheet can make the rolls using the random function, For every turn, the character is potentially alive all at once.

The spreadsheet would flag the turns a character needs to make a death saving through or is vulnerable to plague. Reducing Juan's workload and ensuring the rule is applied.

-Additionally, this can create a Divination/Soothsaying system
-If the sheet is intuitive enough, other random life events can be added if there is value in that.
[+] Death on adventures

I just want to confirm if this works requires player enforcement.

When I first joined in Taelshore, I killed my regent on his first adventure as I didn't know the system and made a fatal assumption based on the CR system from 3rd edition. I did not realize that I had done so until the end of the campaign, and was review old turns.

Similarly, I killed a Lieutenant in this campaign from Hits on an adventure. He was never removed from my turn report, and if I had not calculated his death, there would have been no death.

So to confirm, is this the process?:
- All players are required to count and compare adventure hits vs ECL from the results you publish. -Players are honour-bound to record the loss, and stop losing the lieutenant that died.
[+] Military Attrition

This concept appears to be applied only occasionally. I almost suspect that it exists to ease the workload (especially historically) of large scale battles, and make the summer rule province limit more meaningful.

Over the course of the campaign, I have ceased moving units around to ensure they are located in their winter garrisons (only worrying about having enough winter garrison space available). I stopped including the mention of my LT and their attrition reducing NWPs, as it started to seem like busywork.

Should Military attrition be seen as not as “60% attrition in winter (etc.)” but instead be seen as an “unknowable chance for 60% attrition in winter”. Attrition will be avoided as best as possible, but there may be a streak of bad weather kind of thing.
[+] Aging effects

Depending on the class and NWPs selected, ageing can be beneficial as much as harmful for the character.

Are the ageing effects rules there for character creation (impacts of Educated) and not to be applied during the course of the game.

I noted the changes on the turn submission, but never made it into the turn report. I didn't get the Int bump to administration, so I never applied the strength and con penalties to my characters NWPs either.
Not sure if this is busywork, or if I should have incorporated the changed stats on the main character sheet but not the domain character sheet.

What guidelines should we be adhering to for dealing with ageing effects? How should it be enforced if required?
[+] Adventure Resolution

The success rate at resolving random events does not seem to match the listed values in the rules.

Is there a hidden mechanic that improves the odds, like having a higher EPL or good roll vs the DC?

YK - Yuri Khavlor
Lord Mayor of Lyssan
“Nature is not cruel, but pitilessly indifferent. The hardest lesson for one to learn, is to admit that things might be neither good nor evil, but simply callous -- indifferent to all suffering"

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TH - The Hunt
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by TH - The Hunt » Tue Jun 23, 2020 4:32 pm

Hmm, yeah. A spreadsheet would make it so all the characters starting ages or birth years could be input up front, and then the game year incremented one by one, so that the percentage chance for every last one of them would be calculated automatically. I don't know how to combine an RNG with a spreadsheet, but if that can be done, all the checks could be rolled at once, too, and all the characters that failed it reported immediately.

(The way I'm imagining it doesn't predict character deaths in advance, but I'm not sure I'd want to know that if I was running the game.)
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TPK - The Pirates
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by TPK - The Pirates » Tue Jun 23, 2020 6:29 pm

BSB - Blue Skull Barons wrote:
Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:04 pm
I am unsure of how a number of rules are applied. If some are DM or Player enforced, selectively enforced due to DM workload, or if they are defunct leftovers from older games.
[+] Death Checks
Cut
[+] Death on adventures
Cut
[+] Military Attrition
Cut
[+] Aging effects
Cut
[+] Adventure Resolution
Cut
Death Checks - I'm good with whatever Juan wants here. I was often calculating and using the dice function to roll each turn at first. Stopped in later turns when it seemed clear Juan was rolling this as well.

Death on Adventures - I've had LTs die to this, usually Juan catches it during the event resolution phase. Rarely have I had to notify him that X,Y, or Z had died.

Military Attrition - I've had units lost to this. It rolls in the background to my understanding (although I am not certain if it accounts for the NWPs).

Aging Effects - Anytime you move to a new age category, if it isn't factored in the chat sheet of the turn report, I'd ping Juan in your turn report corrections thread.

Adventure Resolution - Many of these are probably being attempted at higher DC's which increases resolution percentages but would not be known to most. I.e.Haelyn would attempt Undead or Outside adventures before others (even if DC1) and attempt them at his highest DC (5 to 7 depending on who he took, what charged items he used, and what NWPs and Blood Abilities were in play).

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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by DM Juan » Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:56 pm

1) Intermittent - it takes a bunch of time, especially when not everyone lists the death % in their turn. Doing it in a global spreadsheet is a far easier solution, and could be admin'd by someone else.
2) I rely on players counting the hits rolled, and telling me if someone died. It's an honour system. A few have been removed from dying either if I noticed, or someone told me. To be honest, I don't really think it is a useful use of time to triple check it myself.
3) Attrition happens, it's just that everyone (almost) has all the NWP attrition bonuses, and functionally have minimal to no attrition effect. Sometimes I just roll it into the battle description when it involved an army moving into a province/fighting while triggering attrition.
4) Aging effects happen, when I notice. I guess if you call my attention to it, I try to fix it in BirMail. But I probably miss it a lot if it is buried somewhere in the turn.
5) Many people often attempt the exact same adventure. I am not 100% sure even what the roll was on resolution, I just use the template/rolling platform that Joe created. So it may seem like you should only have had a 40% chance, but in fact someone else also tried it at 40% - so you actually ended up with 80% (as a random example).

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TH - The Hunt
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by TH - The Hunt » Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:24 pm

For the dying-from-adventures, I've just been confused about healing items. If they're only used when needed (including when a war adventure has exploding sixes), then I think I've been okay. If the decision to use them has to be taken even before finding out whether the adventurers take any hits, then I probably ran out of them and would have lot characters (if not had to change my adventure DCs).
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by DM Juan » Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:23 pm

Hit Reduction Items are used before the adventure is declared. Stoneskin Potion/Potion of Healing are functionally the same thing for Random Adventures, just skinned differently.

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YK - Yuri Khavlor
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by YK - Yuri Khavlor » Tue Jun 30, 2020 3:28 pm

I have a rough working version of the Death Check Spreadsheet. If anyone is decent with excel, and wants to give a critique, email or dm me. If you are using an older version of excel let me know so I can convert to .xlsx from .ods
YK - Yuri Khavlor
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“Nature is not cruel, but pitilessly indifferent. The hardest lesson for one to learn, is to admit that things might be neither good nor evil, but simply callous -- indifferent to all suffering"

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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by WM - The Waste Mage » Thu Jul 02, 2020 1:39 am

I think assassination would be a lot more fun and interesting if we had a chart that wasn't just - die if you fail by 10 or win initiative for a certain number of rounds. I would like to see a chart more like:

If you fail by more than 20 you are killed.
If you fail by 16-20 you are captured in the attempt and have to be ransomed
If you fail by 10-15 the target has 3 rounds to flee or if chooses to fight can prepare with spells/items/guards/Lts.
If you fail by 5-9 the target has 1 round to flee or if chooses to fight can prepare with spells/items/guards/Lts.
If you win by 5-9 you win initiative.
If you win by 10-15 You have 1 round to prepare spells/items.
If you win by 16-20 you have 3 rounds of prep.
If you win by more than 20 you have 5 rounds of prep.





Espionage - Assassination (cannot be used to divest)
Base Cost: 1 GB
DC: 20+
Effect: If you succeed, you engage your fellow PC in a combat of equal footing. If you fail by greater than 10, you automatically die in the attempt. Guild/Law in province targeted can support or oppose. This takes place in the target's capital unless they are explicitly leading troops in war, at which point it takes place in the province they are fighting in. For each 5 you beat the DC by, you automatically win initiative for a round (eg, if you beat the DC by 15, you'd act first in the first 3 rounds).

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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by TH - The Hunt » Thu Jul 02, 2020 1:52 am

I agree. This sounds complicated, but Espionage is (I hope) a rare event that might be worthy of it. Plus, the story (and RP!) would have been way more interesting if my fail by 5 or less hadn't just been '...nothing happens' (and getting mocked for trying).

Mind, 'nothing happens' is better than 'you die', so the assassin should get a chance to escape even if the target stays to fight, on a fail.

For the last three, I'd have it go from one round to one turn to one day. Such extravagant successes deserve extravagant ambushes.
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Re: Minor Rules and Mechanics clarifications

Post by DM Juan » Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:02 am

Espionage - Assassination (cannot be used to divest)
Base Cost: 1 GB
DC: 20+
Opposition/Support: Guild/Law in province targeted can support or oppose. This takes place in the target's capital unless they are explicitly leading troops in war, at which point it takes place in the province they are fighting in.
Effect: If you succeed, you engage your fellow PC in a combat of equal footing. If you fail by greater than 15, you automatically die in the attempt at the hands of the target. If you fail by 15 or less; the target has up to 3 rounds to prepare, or wins initiative for up to 3 rounds or can avoid the attempt entirely, at their choice (they get 1 round per 5 you fail by). For each 5 you beat the DC by, you automatically win initiative for a round, or get 1 round of preparation.

There. It gives some flexibility. Mages may want to prepare, warriors almost certainly will want the initiative (unless they have spellcasting, of course)

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