Could we use this to help each other in one place? I'll start.
1. Does strife on an initiative roll get counted? I'm guessing yes.
2. NPC skill ranks. Does the color in the stat block coorespond to the ring to be used? And if it's white (rank 0), do you choose a ring or say it is incapable of using that skill group?
I can answer these!
1. Yes. Strife is counted from every roll.
2. No. It is just used to easily differentiate between the various Skill Groups. If it is 0 then the NPC simply rolls and keeps their Ring without any Skill dice.
Another quick one, I'm AFB.
Does Initiative get rerolled each round, is it static like DnD, or can you set slots like Star Wars?
It is static (you do not re-roll it), but there are some Opportunities and special abilities that can change it.
Great questions! Glad to know about the mounting Strife.
I just read the first adventure beginning-to-end and had a few questions of my own:
With regards to Hitoshi and the archery contest, my read of it was that he simply needed to show his proficiency in the contest, not necessarily win it, to get the required 8 points to earn his gempukku. Probably safe to say that he's a good enough archer that he can not only get the necessary point, but do so using the judge's preferred Ring, earning him an extra point for doing so.
It's actually explicit that he does need to win it to pass his gempukku. He will win it unless a PC does better than he does, which if I remember right requires 3 bonus successes.
All of the competitions list who the winner of it is unless the PCs do better, listing how many bonus successes they need to keep to do so.
On 8/19/2018 at 12:41 AM, JSM3050 said:
- Do you pair heroes up against NPCs during the various events of the competition or do they just roll their chosen Ring + Skill and whoever rolls highest is the winner?
I am really interested for an answer to that please!
4 hours ago, timezero said:I am really interested for an answer to that please!
You don't pair anyone up. All of the PCs roll their Ring + Skill, and whoever keeps the most bonus successes (and more than the NPC front-runner) wins.
It's worth noting that there is one event where characters are meant to spar with each other with practice weapons, but even then it explicitly says the judges are grading based on form so they're still competing against 'the field.'
We ran through the adventure on Saturday and here's what I did. The adventure book says that the challenges are just rolls against a given TN, not opposed rolls. That seemed a little weird for the sumai challenge, but I didn't want to slow things down or have to explain opposed roles so early in the game so I had Yuikimi, the reigning champion give all the contestants a little talk during the scene where she is there to answer questions about the tournament. I had her say something like "listen guys, I know its a competition, but you're all in this together. Some of the events are competitive, but the judges are also going to judge you on style and form". Then, when the sumai challenge came up, I paired up the PCs with NPCs and had them roll against target number the book calls for. Then I narrated the bout. If they met the check, they beat their opponent, but that opponent might have also gotten a point because the judge liked their form or something.
Regarding Hitoshi needing to win the archery contest, this gave the players a chance to encourage him before he took his shot. Of course, it was their encouragement that helped him do so well, not whatever the book says. At least one player then held back dice on their rounds so they would succeed, but not beat Hitoshi.
During the level up part, it says to increase a ring value, it costs twice the new value, but in the example it's not that: from 1 to 2, it would cost 6xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 9xp.
Twice the new value should mean from 1 to 2 it would cost 4xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 6xp.
So what am I not getting here? I'm kinda lost on what to do.
3 minutes ago, timezero said:During the level up part, it says to increase a ring value, it costs twice the new value, but in the example it's not that: from 1 to 2, it would cost 6xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 9xp.
Twice the new value should mean from 1 to 2 it would cost 4xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 6xp.
So what am I not getting here? I'm kinda lost on what to do.
I'd go with the new raml times 3. It's what they listed in the beta, and given that raising skills is new rank times 2 it'd make sense that increasing a Ring (which lets you keep more dice) would have a higher XP cost.
On 8/23/2018 at 9:52 PM, timezero said:During the level up part, it says to increase a ring value, it costs twice the new value, but in the example it's not that: from 1 to 2, it would cost 6xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 9xp.
Twice the new value should mean from 1 to 2 it would cost 4xp and from 2 to 3 it would cost 6xp.
So what am I not getting here? I'm kinda lost on what to do.
I think this is a typo in the printed folios and FFG meant for ring values to cost 3X the new value. I don't have the printed folios in front of me, but the instructions from the online folios are below ( https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/d7/6c/d76ce547-6972-46f7-837f-fd5f551b8959/folio_crabcompressed.pdf
"During the Interlude, you gain 4 XP! You can spend XP to...
2 hours ago, DanGers said:I think this is a typo in the printed folios and FFG meant for ring values to cost 3X the new value. I don't have the printed folios in front of me, but the instructions from the online folios are below ( https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/d7/6c/d76ce547-6972-46f7-837f-fd5f551b8959/folio_crabcompressed.pdf ?
"During the Interlude, you gain 4 XP! You can spend XP to...
- Increase one or more Rings : Increasing a Ring value costs XP equal to three times the new value. So advancing from 1 to 2 costs 6 XP, from 2 to 3 costs 9 XP, and so on. Each upgrade must be done separately, so increasing a Ring value from 1 to 3 would cost 15 XP (6 XP + 9 XP). You can never increase a Ring value greater than your lowest Rings value + your Void Ring value. Mark the new value in the entry space for that ring."
And with earning 4xp in the adventure you dont have enough to up rings yet, right?
48 minutes ago, bsmith23 said:And with earning 4xp in the adventure you dont have enough to up rings yet, right?
You earn two lots of 4xp (four at the intermission and four at the end) - so it's useful for the Followup,
On 8/24/2018 at 10:42 AM, gareth_lazelle said:You earn two lots of 4xp (four at the intermission and four at the end) - so it's useful for the Followup,
It's also possible (if the play is slow-but-RP-heavy) for a GM to read the rulebook and award the extra for an extra session.
I note that now strife is not reduced by half of your composure after a scene, but instead reduced to half of your composure,
This does mean that high-strife characters can't start a scene compromised, which is a good thing, but it seems like lowering strife below that is difficult for many characters (okay, the lion can go out, get into a brawl, and beat some people up with lion technique, and I'm guessing that there are one or two other similar abilities, but for a lot of the time it's going to be unmaskings),
Misprint? Intentional? Artefact of the playtest rules? It seems odd that many characters will run with a baseline level of strife? Are NPC Composure levels lowered to put them on the same baseline?
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.So, during the tea ceremony, what if the players just, ask, how he died? It's probably a breach of etiquette, but how should he respond? A riddle? Silence? Rage? Ignorance?
20 minutes ago, bsmith23 said:SPOILER ALER
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.So, during the tea ceremony, what if the players just, ask, how he died? It's probably a breach of etiquette, but how should he respond? A riddle? Silence? Rage? Ignorance?
Given the answer on pg14 (Aren't you... Dead?) I'm going to guess at 'enigmatically',
Note that this is covered on pg16 of 'in the palace of the emerald champion' ( the dead emerald champion does not know the circumstances surrounding his demise )
Ah, good to know. I hadn't read that far yet.
At the start of the of the competition, do you disclose to players the structure of the tournament?
Like how they score points and they need 8 points to succeed?
Yes, you should let them know that they earn one point for succeeding, another point for succeeding in the preferred manner of the judges, and the person who does the best (keeps the most successes) earns an additional point. Let them know the target numbers, but I wouldn't let them know how many bonus successes they need to keep to be the best or flat out tell them what ring to use.
17 hours ago, timezero said:At the start of the of the competition, do you disclose to players the structure of the tournament?
Like how they score points and they need 8 points to succeed?
There is a part where the head of the dueling academy tells the contestants to direct any questions to the current Topaz Champion. This is a good spot in the narrative for the current champion to quickly look around to make sure all the old folks are gone and then bring in the contestants saying "okay guys, let me tell you how this really works."
On 8/18/2018 at 10:41 PM, JSM3050 said:
- Do you pair heroes up against NPCs during the various events of the competition or do they just roll their chosen Ring + Skill and whoever rolls highest is the winner?
While as written you don't, we always do at our table. We find it's more fun that way. Most of the contests like Heraldry, Athletics, Horsemanship, or Hunting are fine without direct opponents, but Sumai, Weaponry, Go, and the Iai test are all more fun when you have some sort of face-off. I think people should still be able to get their point if they don't win of course - if they show competence - but having contests like this early with relatively low stakes (nobody is expecting to die here) helps the players (and the GM!) figure out the system and get comfortable with it sooner, even including the scene with the ruffians. But it also adds its own sort of tension, which we like.
For the Iaijutsu we even do a full competition bracket for advancements and finals and stuff.