I understand that the core book has some guidelines for how to spend advantage and disadvantage in combat and social encounters, but how do you draw the lines between what can be 1 adv versus 2 adv when trying to go off the book? Do you use some unwritten rules in your head to determine if something is doing "too much" for a given amount of advantage or disadvantage?

Thanks,

Carl

I assume you mean narratively?

Yeah, and if you have any strategies for turning the narration into game mechanics? I think I'm just having trouble moving away from the examples from the book and am wondering if anybody has some advice for first steps?

It is a struggle, I understand. But here might be a few examples:

Skill: Stealth
Result: 1 ADV (with a Failed check)

• Narrative #1: You failed to sneak past the guards but notice that the doorway they were guarding has been left open. All you need to do it get around them.
• Narrative #2: You failed to sneak up to the case of weapons in the camp, but a polearm is within arms reach when the orc charge
• Narrative #3: You failed to move past the robot sentries but made it across the room and have a moment to catch your breath before the attack (gain 1 point of strain back)

Skill: Survival
Result: 2 AV (with a success)

• Narrative #1: You tracked the goblins to their hideout and have found a spot to watch what they are up to (+1 Boost on your next Perception check)
• Narrative #2: You scrounge for food having run out of rations. You find enough for everyone after locating a large stag. Each party member gains an addition wound when they heal overnight.
• Narrative #3: You examine the footprints of the creature you have been tracking. You know it is an Dragon of some kind but given the depth you realise the true size of the creature. Gain an addition boost dice on your Knowledge (Adventuring) check to determine what type of Dragon.

You get the idea.

The key is to fixate on the narrative first and then discuss how that works mechanically.

3 hours ago, MrCauliflower said:

Yeah, and if you have any strategies for turning the narration into game mechanics? I think I'm just having trouble moving away from the examples from the book and am wondering if anybody has some advice for first steps?

Honestly in combat I mostly don't worry about it because I don't expect a narration on every roll, there is just too **** many rolls. For other rolls I have no real advice other than the more betterer stuff make up something coolerer and coolerer.

In my fantasy game I had an NPC wizard helping my guys and one got essentially bathed in corrosive acid by a wyvern. The wizard actually rolled great, don't recall the exact results, but I described it as him using his roll to explode the armor off the player like an Iron Man suit flying off Tony and a small rain cloud drenching him and halting the burn effect from the acid. My advice is think like a comic book and the cheesiest of action movies.

I would say as a GM, or as players, look over the charts of how to spend symbols, but then don't even bring the charts to the gaming table. It's an art, not a science, and there's almost always something more interesting than handing off a boost or a setback. Well, critting on an attack is often a great use of a triumph, but even that is not always the most fun.

My group was pretty forgiving in the playtest of Terrinoth to just winging it with symbols. Granted, I had read an awful lot of forum advice by that point. They were also shockingly eager to flip story points to introduce narrative wrinkles, not just to upsize dice, and were happy when upsizing to come up with fun (and often eyebrow raising) justifications.

I think if you start too close to the charts in the CRB, you'll have more trouble looking up from them.

This is one of those things that is both the best and worst part of FFG's Narrative Dice System, both in SWRPG and Genesys. It really comes down to the individual game and group at the table to decide how much an advantage (or any other result) is worth.

Is it a gritty realistic game? most likely it's worth less.

Is it a superhero or pulp action game? most likely it's worth more.

Does the group prefer incremental and small situation shifts? most likely less.

Does the group prefer wild and crazy situation shifts? most likely more.

And of course, Is it somewhere in between any of those options, plus more i didn't list?

Now this is especially true for narrative time and narrative uses. For combat we can engineer it based on the tables given, we know 1 advantage is worth about X, where X is one of the options on the Advantage/Threat in combat table.

At the end of the day a lot of people can (and have here) offered great advice. However, the only thing that really matters is the fun of the group at the table. Find your own balance and don't be afraid to tweak it as you get more experience with the system. And, with each other as players. Just remember getting it 100% right is less important than making sure everyone has fun.