martedì 21 agosto 2012

The One Ring "Living Rules": Preliminary Rolls

Here I am again ("So soon? What's going on?"). Does someone remember the discussion over at the Cubicle 7 forums about my 'revised journey rules'? Well, something interesting came out about unifying the mechanics that let player gain some advantages during the three main 'heroic ventures' of the game - journeys, combat and encounters.

Well, here's my first stab at simplifying those procedures, as suggested in particular by user Undeadtrout - basically, to treat the 'Planning ahead' of journeys, 'Combat advantages' and opening phase of encounters in the same way. The changes do not produce exactly the same results of the original rules (especially as far as journeys are concerned), but certainly streamline the design and are easier to remember. But see the linked .pdf to see what I mean.

Now, a disclaimer: again, this is not my attempt at 'officially' revising the rules of the game. These are just my 'house rules', devised to answer some of the criticism I see pop up here and there, or simply to answer my own gaming needs. These 'living rules' installments might eventually be taken into consideration for a future revision of the game, or just continue to exist only in your games (or mine). Use at your own risk! ;)

So, enjoy, and please let me know what you think.



16 commenti:

  1. I like it! I'll be trying this one out next time I play.

    RispondiElimina
  2. I like it! Way simpler and easier to run, but doesn't seem to lose any of the flavour.

    What do you think about making the Encounter Preliminary Roll the "Introduction", so that that step has a mechanical purpose?

    RispondiElimina
  3. I think I will playtest these rules. What is attractive about them is they bring unity to all three heroic ventures, making the start of each one easy to remember (everyone will know that before a combat, encounter, or journey, they will be able to make a preliminary roll for bonus success dice.

    I always forget the pre-journey rules and end up referring to the rulebooks. This is easy to remember.

    What about allowing heroes to "gift" their bonus success dice to other members of the fellowship? For example, I earn 2 bonus success dice for a journey and I want to give one of them to my fellowship focus who failed his roll. I narrate that my character speaks to him and gives him advice to stick close to me, especially when navigating the woods. Later, he can narrate how he uses that bonus dice and succeeds by following me.

    RispondiElimina
  4. To James - the mechanic to give a die to another player is there already.

    To Nick - the Introduction represents a stage that is very much present in the stories, that moment when heroes introduce themselves ("I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn and this is Gimli, son of Gloin..."). I think it's better to keep preliminary rolls, well, preliminary! ;)

    To everyone - let me know how this works for you!

    RispondiElimina
  5. Yes, there it is on page 42 of the LB under Exploiting Combat Advantages. It would be assumed then that this same mechanic would extend to advantages in Encounters and Journeys. Very nice!

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. It's also in the Preliminary rolls document, right under Ho to spend bonus Success dice.

      Elimina
  6. I'm so embarrassed! Sorry for that. I did read your document (I promise). Funny thing is, your rules are probably what put the idea in my head in the first place and I temporarily forgot that's where it came from :) I think I will go and get some coffee. It's been a long couple of days of meetings and I did slice the top of my head open while playing table tennis yesterday morning. Catching a few minutes here and there to talk to you here and on the Cubicle7 forum has been the relaxing and fun part. You are an inspiration! I really wish you could have been at GenCon.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. You shouldn't be embarrassed! I am being very sparing with words when I write these 'updates', so you don't get many examples or reiterations of concepts.
      As far as Gencon is concerned, I hope I'll be there next year!

      Elimina
  7. So does the new Lore roll for Journeys replace the existing Lore roll, or is it an additional one?

    On the one hand, it seems strange to roll Lore twice to add dice.

    On the other hand, if it replaces that roll, then there is a step missing in Journeys.

    Battle Roll : Insight Roll : Lore Roll

    Opening Volleys : Introductions : ??

    Combat : Encounter : Journey


    Any thoughts about this?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. The new mechanics are meant to replace the old Lore roll. So, they fit the previous 'planning ahead' step.

      Elimina
    2. Is there something we can do for Journeys to line up with Opening Volleys and Introductions? If we can, then we will have total unity between the different systems.

      Elimina
    3. If I'm understanding correctly, what you're getting as is this. Preliminary rolls are made for Combat, Encounter, and Journeys to check for bonus success dice by making a Battle Roll, Insight Roll, and Lore Roll respectively.

      The NEXT step in each heroic venture is what you're looking for unity in. Correct?

      Here's the problem: Opening Volleys come BEFORE preliminary rolls (as currently written, LB 42; although this could be changed easily). Introductions come AFTER preliminary rolls. Planning Ahead seems to be the SAME as a preliminary roll (although I would argue that the Lore roll is to see if the heroes know anything about the route already chosen; in this case the preliminary roll would come AFTER the choosing of the route, which I would define as Planning Ahead. If you changed this around and made the preliminary roll BEFORE Planning Ahead, you could easily justify it by saying that a hero's knowledge of travelling in Middle-earth led him to help plan the route and will benefit him during the journey).

      So, if the rules are tweaked slightly for Combat and allow players to make a preliminary roll of Battle BEFORE Opening Volleys (in which case they will be able to use combat advantages for ranged weapons too), and Planning Ahead is redefined as what comes AFTER the preliminary Lore roll, then everything should line up and solve the disunity symptoms that have been noticed by hard to diagnose precisely.

      Elimina
  8. Yes, the next step. I've been doing the Battle roll before Opening Volleys, so I didn't notice the difference. :)

    For Journeys it seems like Planning Ahead would fit, but then you are making 2 Lore rolls in a row that give you extra dice (which is odd).

    I think the solution would be to roll something different for either Planning Ahead or the Preliminary Roll (so you don't roll Lore twice) and to have Planning Ahead have different results (you could keep the 1 day off effect, but would want something besides adding more dice or lowering difficulties).

    RispondiElimina
  9. I think that Francesco's intention is that what is described in Planning Ahead (AB 154) goes away and is replaced by the preliminary Lore roll. So, there will no longer be a comparison of who gets the highest roll, etc. The intention is not to have two Lore rolls in a row.

    My recommendation is to rename 'The Adventurer's Map' section (AB 153), which describes choosing the route, to 'Planning Ahead.' This step would not need any die rolls, just interaction among the players as to which way they will journey. Even though there would be no die rolls necessary for the NEXT step in a journey, I still think there is unity among the three heroic ventures because of the preliminary roll. After the preliminary roll, the process is bound to be different for each venture because they are entirely different activities.

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. You would also need to eliminate the current 'Planning Ahead' section, of course.

      Elimina
  10. Hi Francesco!

    I have some questions:

    First, travel preliminary roll replaces "Planning ahead", ok, perfect, but... Combat preliminary roll comes to replace "Combat advantages"? I ask it because "combat advantages" introduce different TN acording to the situation (Actually, I guess that it replaces, but attending to different TNs).


    Second one, In the preliminary rolls you wrote "players are entitled to make a preliminary skill roll", so I guess these rolls are not obligatory, so... Is there any penalty for failing this roll (like in "Planning Ahead")?

    Thanks!!

    RispondiElimina