How does the Yogo Wardmaster unleashes his prepared invocations, does he has to roll against the TN of the invocation again? And the advantage is it happens instantly and without offerings?
Yogo Prepared Invocations
No, you only roll once for an invocation, whether by casting normally or having a ward trigger. When you prepare the ward, you record the trigger and the roll, so that you know what happens once it triggers.
You should also agree with the GM what is 'enough' to count as a trigger.
Assuming the ward is a composition-skill-scroll as per the book, it's not unreasonable the GM might expect you to take the scroll in hand to read/tear/burn/throw it or whatever.
As a result they may insist triggering it requires a prepare action: it won't require offerings, etc but it may not be 'instantaneous' depending on what you meant by the term.
I would actually say that is unreasonable because of all the examples of defensive wards that we have in the lore, which distinctly do not require the casting Shugenja to even be present.
The advantage of wards is that you can place them somewhere and have them react to their surroundings. Triggers can be "whenever someone who isn't a samurai of clan X walks through this doorway", "whenever someone tries to attack the Emperor", "when my Fatigue would exceed my Endurance" or, sure, "when I hold up this ward and yell 'fireball!'", in which case I would count that as requiring an action. You also know in advance how well the roll went and won't possibly require channeling to succeed.
So you get a predetermined effect either as an instant reaction to something or with a minimal action (but that's not the default nor should your GM insist on that!). What they require is time to prepare and discussion about what is a valid trigger with your GM, that much is true.
Thank you all for taking your time and explain this to me. 😊
1 hour ago, Myrion said:You also know in advance how well the roll went and won't possibly require channeling to succeed.
This can be abused if you have the time: Realize that you only barely succeeded, tear up the first Ward (unless you're a Yogo), and write up a new one!
Well, "abused" - yes, if you have a lot of time, it allows you to go for a best possible roll. But downtime actions can be rare and are used for many things, so taking lots of tries might not be worth it.
Yes, at least with our group, downtime action is the kind of stuff that can take a day or a whole week (or even month) depending on the narrative needs. It’s not like you can have one every night before going to bed.
Edited by Diogo Salazar3 hours ago, Myrion said:I would actually say that is unreasonable because of all the examples of defensive wards that we have in the lore, which distinctly do not require the casting Shugenja to even be present.
Agreed, but even then there needs to be a clear trigger. They're not set off by telepathy but by someone moving to a specific point or passing a threshold, opening a door, reading them, whatever - there will generally be an action-scale 'thing' associated with triggering them, even if it's not your action.
I'm fine with most of your examples, except 'fatigue exceeds endurance', which feels a bit mechanistic to describe 'in game'. "I'm Bleeding", fine.
Ah, okay, put that way I see your point and agree.
"Whenever I am too tired to defend myself against another attack after having been attackes" should work, though?
19 minutes ago, Myrion said:Ah, okay, put that way I see your point and agree.
"Whenever I am too tired to defend myself against another attack after having been attackes" should work, though?
Or simply, if I’m incapacitated works better. Or if I pass out. Stuff like that.
Incapacitated is just as mechanistic though, and passing out is already too late - reduced Fatigue doesn't remove the Unconscious condition.
12 minutes ago, Myrion said:Incapacitated is just as mechanistic though, and passing out is already too late - reduced Fatigue doesn't remove the Unconscious condition.
So is bleeding. I guess it’s just a matter, of how much mechanist you want to be.
Bleeding isn't mechanistic as much because it's clearly in-fiction noticeable.
4 hours ago, Tenebrae said:This can be abused if you have the time: Realize that you only barely succeeded, tear up the first Ward (unless you're a Yogo), and write up a new one!
Also, every attempt costs 1 bu. This isn't a huge amount of money, but if you're doing it regularly it will lead to somebody asking what you're doing with the stipend your lord has given to you.
Edited by Tonbo Karasu3 hours ago, Myrion said:Bleeding isn't mechanistic as much because it's clearly in-fiction noticeable.
That was pretty much what I meant.