So does anyone actually know how combat is going to work in LoD? I’ve seen in preview them mention attacking and not in a “I choose to attack, good you win” but real turn based combat. So how is this going to work? Any ideas?

On the FFG site they have a little extract from an adventure.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/11/14/sliver-of-silver/

It seems to suggest imo that some kind of dice rolling might be involved? the 'attacks' seem to be separate from the actual decisions but it isnt 100% clear.

Yeah but the article is kind of General when it comes to attack, very vague. Also we can see by the product pics that no dice are included in the package. It makes me wonder.

I would guess that combat works like everything else: You make a decision and see what happens — depending on your skills and equipment.

2 hours ago, Samea said:

I would guess that combat works like everything else: You make a decision and see what happens — depending on your skills and equipment.

I kind of hope not. It would make everything very regimented in terms of replay etc.

Do you attack or run away? You attack, well done you killed the goblin turn to page 3.

I imagine it more along the lines of:

There are bandits. Do you A) hide or B) fight.

A) How do you do it? x) stealth skill (if available) or y) invisibility potion (if available) or z) trust your luck.

B) How do you fight? a) fight skill (if available) or b) weapon (if available) or c) scare them with some source of fire (if available) or d) surrender.

So yeah, if you always pick the same decisions, your adventure will always be the same. But different character stats, equipment, previous choices etc. should make this virtually impossible if there are enough choices. And if the choices are nested this way, you will never know what the alternative would have been like unless you go along another path next time — if you remember this by then.

Also, fights usually only have "win" or "lose" alternatives and hit points only decide, how long you can stay in the game. I find these multiple choices more appealing. Especially since you do not know beforehand how they will go. If you decide on hiding, it is only then that you find out that you need stealth or a potion for it. There may not be an element of chance, but certainly there is choice and risk.

But what do I know? Only when we hold the box in our hands will we know for sure. For all we know today, combat is fought out with bat'leths in RL by the players.

40 minutes ago, Samea said:

For all we know today, combat is fought out with bat'leths in RL by the players.

Really? Sold!

On 11/16/2017 at 10:59 AM, VAYASAN said:

I kind of hope not. It would make everything very regimented in terms of replay etc.

Do you attack or run away? You attack, well done you killed the goblin turn to page 3.

Yeah, if that's what it ends up being I'm going to be pretty disappointed. This started out sounding like a pseudo RPG/boardgame hybrid. Now it's starting to sound like it has LESS depth that a Fighting Fantasy style gamebook. I'm kinda regretting preordering this unless I start seeing something else deep and cool looking about this.

This has always been a big concern of mine. I wish they would release an article about the actually mechanics that are used in the game instead of just narrative instances...unless that’s all the game is I’m still excited for it, just a bit worried too.

Surely it isnt just 'do you attack or hide'. You attack, well done you killed it, remove 2 stamina?????

If everyone has got stamina etc, then surely there must be some rolling involved?

The only "mechanics" I have seen so far is making decisions and picking options. No random factor involved.

6 hours ago, VAYASAN said:

Surely it isnt just 'do you attack or hide'. You attack, well done you killed it, remove 2 stamina?????

If everyone has got stamina etc, then surely there must be some rolling involved?

Well since it’s branching story paths and different classes have different stamina values then there is some variability between players, also their play style (if you can call choosing A or B a playstyle) will effect if they need more stamina over another character. Hopefully there is some random-element combat but I just haven’t seen ANY indication of it and you would think that would be one of the first articles to be put out.

No mention in the rules of combat. And in the character gen booklet, the strong implication is that having a specific 'combat skill' (like alchemy!) will potentially give you an extra option in a combat encounter. Presumably this is pretty much as described by Samea above. Just a different text entry to turn to, with the same Stamina penalty. Hope I'm reading it wrong.

The whole thing feels crafted with love (and it's great to see a self-identified trans character amongst the pre-gens), but if true, it's a step backwards in terms of combat, and that has me reconsidering an almost guaranteed purchase when this was announced. Why not just a simple dice and hitpoint system? Oh well. Fingers crossed the reviews are epic...

11 hours ago, jonamok said:

No mention in the rules of combat. And in the character gen booklet, the strong implication is that having a specific 'combat skill' (like alchemy!) will potentially give you an extra option in a combat encounter. Presumably this is pretty much as described by Samea above. Just a different text entry to turn to, with the same Stamina penalty. Hope I'm reading it wrong.

The whole thing feels crafted with love (and it's great to see a self-identified trans character amongst the pre-gens), but if true, it's a step backwards in terms of combat, and that has me reconsidering an almost guaranteed purchase when this was announced. Why not just a simple dice and hitpoint system? Oh well. Fingers crossed the reviews are epic...

Absolutely agreed with the bold part of your message.

Cannot believe the combat feels like its hiked so far back to beyond basic of games from many years ago. It didnt have to be complicated, any simple system with rolling a 3-6 or something to hit would have been a massive improvement on simple 'pick this' turn there.

to me thats not combat.

Rest of it sounds brilliantly conceived....its why (imo) im so gobsmacked that the combat is like that.

I do not understand what would be so great about a primitive combat system for this game. This is a story game, it's about stuff happening based on decisions you make, choices and roads not taken and the many different ways the narrative can go.

Most combat mechanics are quite boring from a narrative perspective: They are essentially a convoluted way to randomly determine a binary win/lose outcome.

I get that combat can be an exciting mini-game. But if the whole game is about alternatives and picking new directions for the story, all combat really does here is slowing the game down and taking agency from you by randomly determining an option you otherwise had to pick yourself.

I'm slightly disappointed but still interested, I'm planning on playing this with my kids (5 and 8 yrs old) so it certainly sounds accessible to them but even they can handle (and enjoy) a system where you roll to hit and deduct damage. Like many others I'll keep an eye on reviews...

32 minutes ago, Samea said:

I do not understand what would be so great about a primitive combat system for this game. This is a story game, it's about stuff happening based on decisions you make, choices and roads not taken and the many different ways the narrative can go.

Most combat mechanics are quite boring from a narrative perspective: They are essentially a convoluted way to randomly determine a binary win/lose outcome.

I get that combat can be an exciting mini-game. But if the whole game is about alternatives and picking new directions for the story, all combat really does here is slowing the game down and taking agency from you by randomly determining an option you otherwise had to pick yourself.

IMO interaction is good, rolling a few dice(nothing complex) is interaction with the story in its most basic format.

Stripping interaction out and giving it a more basic level than nearly every game including he old fighting fantasy books is not imo a good idea.....interaction in terms of roleplaying a character in a story is good surely?

The main reason I want some randomness, is otherwise the designers have made a predestined choice that I win every fight first time (albeit with varying stamina loss). Because I doubt they would give me an insta-death fight. So there's no tension to combat. Assuming I go in with a chunk of stamina.

Perhaps some fights will be multistage, so there are more strategic options to retreat etc. I guess we'll see.

25 minutes ago, jonamok said:

The main reason I want some randomness, is otherwise the designers have made a predestined choice that I win every fight first time (albeit with varying stamina loss). Because I doubt they would give me an insta-death fight. So there's no tension to combat. Assuming I go in with a chunk of stamina.

Perhaps some fights will be multistage, so there are more strategic options to retreat etc. I guess we'll see.

I just think its stripped a game down of some of its potential interest and surprise.

Not sure why anyone thinks that would be a good thing?

To repeat myself from the general rules thread: Better this than a system of pure unmitigated luck as in the Lone Wolf books. Of course, a sweet spot somewhere in the middle would be ideal, but for that you'd need a proper RPG stat system and that this wouldn't have such has been known for weeks - and to be perfectly honest, that it would be dice-less has been known for months, so we all had more than enough time to make peace with this; can't really blame FFG if you didn't.

5 hours ago, jonamok said:

The main reason I want some randomness, is otherwise the designers have made a predestined choice that I win every fight first time (albeit with varying stamina loss).

I do not think the stories will be about fights that much. You can probably get through the whole campaign without fighting once. So why should fighting be treated differently from every other thing you could be doing?

And the outcome of everything you do in these adventures is already determined — what's behind a door, how an NPC reacts to you and what happens, when you pick a fight with the bandits instead of running or hiding. The point is that you don't know beforehand and blindly pick a thing your character could do and you would like to see her do. That is how the game works.

I totally get this, and on reflection I’m tempted to agree with you. It still just sits wrong with me a little. Can’t really explain it, it’s just dampened my enthusiasm a bit. However, if the reviews are +ve, I’m sure I’ll be picking it up.

This is a huge bummer, I definitely wish I wouldn't have preordered this. It clearly has a lot less depth than the Fabled Lands or Destiny Quest gamebooks, which are about $8 and $12 respectively. Am I missing something here?

This is closer to a board game, which allows for a group experience. If you're playing solo, traditional game books could be more immersive. But you cannot really share them wih your friends or kids, taking every step of the adventure together, discussing what to do next.

I think this will be the greatest appeal, might be especially great to get children who are not quite old enough to enjoy reading that much text into the RPG and story game hobby…

10 minutes ago, Samea said:

This is closer to a board game, which allows for a group experience. If you're playing solo, traditional game books could be more immersive. But you cannot really share them wih your friends or kids, taking every step of the adventure together, discussing what to do next.

I think this will be the greatest appeal, might be especially great to get children who are not quite old enough to enjoy reading that much text into the RPG and story game hobby…

But the only thing that really makes this a group experience is the fact that you take turns making dicisions which of course can be done in a typical game book. Im still fairly excited but if this wasn’t in Terrinoth then it’d be a major pass for me.