Looking for a guide on using advantages for adding thematic elements

By Norr-Saba, in Game Masters

Has anyone developed a simple guide for their players on how they can use advantages and triumphs to add thematic elements to their surroundings outside of the standard threat and advantage chart?

I’ve mostly been using GM fiat to tell them whether or not I feel they have enough advantages to add what they are trying to do but it would be great if someone had a guide that tells them how much they can ad for 1,2,3,4 advantages & triumphs and so on.

Mostly asking because the players I have are coming over from dnd and aren’t used to having a lot of player agency in interpreting their rolls and I want to be able to give them somthing to help them think about what they can do.

1 hour ago, Norr-Saba said:

Has anyone developed a simple guide for their players on how they can use advantages and triumphs to add thematic elements to their surroundings outside of the standard threat and advantage chart?

If by "thematic elements" you mean directly adding something to the narrative or environment, then be careful. A Destiny point can be used to do such. If advantages can do the same thing it would be taking away from what a Destiny point can do.

I highly recommend investing time in listening to the "Skill Monkey" series within the Order 66 podcast on d20 radio dot com. It goes beyond the easy and boring ideas for believable game-scenario skill checks that you will encounter while playing. Translating how the dice have multiple axis of success and failure in a single roll is a very common challenge for players of d20 systems to wrap their head around. Skill Monkey aimed to fix that.

IIRC, in the Compiled Resources List (pinned on the EotE main board) there is a link to a document which lists most if not all of the published environmental advantages/triumphs/threats/despairs lists, such as wilderness combat, urban combat, boarding actions (combat on board ships/space stations), as well as skill uses, etc.

On 12/21/2020 at 2:35 AM, Norr-Saba said:

Mostly asking because the players I have are coming over from dnd and aren’t used to having a lot of player agency in interpreting their rolls and I want to be able to give them somthing to help them think about what they can do.

Having had to guide some curmudgeons on this aspect a few times, at first it took a lot of hand holding and pointing out examples, and eventually most of them got it. I found at first it was helpful to be more explicit when laying the groundwork in the description of the scene, and at least mentioning potential moving parts (but not in an obvious way). Throwing in suggestive hints from Perception or Vigilance checks can also provide fodder for ideas (I mean vague things like "that switch looks pretty corroded"; I don't mean specifics like "for 3A you can shoot the switch and the doors will open"...that's for the player to ask). Every scene is different, so as part of the GM prep I try to include a few notes on what the narrative axes can be used for, both for and against (borrowing from the Compiled Resources @Bellona mentioned is super helpful).