Post by turtleheart in A Couple of Questions

Viewing post in A Couple of Questions

I've been running it the way you suggest, but only allowing them to take a single stack of ammo when setting out. It's nice to know that someone agrees with me, I was wondering if how I ran it was too harsh. Thank you for your answers.

1. The stores sell harpoonbow shots, see the table on page 64. Of course, that requires the Heirs to find one and be able to communicate with the seller, which is not guaranteed.

I like your idea of letting the Heirs take as much ammo as they want when they set out. Only downside I could see is that they might be tempted to discard items that are not immediately obvious how they would be useful, such as the lens or tar pot. Has that happened to you?

2. The argument against is that ingesting Sand allows the Heirs to inherit memories of their ancestors. But, I agree that gameplay is more important here than flavour.

3. After making the mistake to allow people who had nothing to do during a rest to forage or explore, I agree that splitting turns seems too powerful.

But, regarding splitting turns, would you allow a split party to split their turns? For example if only half the group fail their morale roll to flee. I've yet had this come up, but I don't know how I would handle this.

qpop3 years ago

Hey! Always glad to chat about this game :)

1. My players joined did a WHOLE lot of pantomime and bartering with Chum before they got an Academic. I bet yours could do the same with the hermits. I should clarify here though that I meant they could fill empty slots, not leave stuff in Manawa. A lot of the most fun stuff has been off of ridiculous use of random starting items, so I definitely wouldn't let them leave stuff behind. For example the horn, which we played as a bike horn, has now become a key component of Chum leadership and culture after a chance trade in Gen 1. I haven't had to deal with ammo at all though, because my one fisher player got The Deep Queen's Harpoon on Gen 1 and never used their harpoonbow.

2. Yeah, ultimately it comes down to your table. I am fortunate enough to play with good friends, so if something isn't working right I can just talk to them about it and we will change it. Hopefully if you don't like how it's working, you feel comfortable enough to do the same.

3. I have had a bunch of morale rolls come up. For me, I just told them if they wanted to run they had to stick together! Which, unfortunately, is kind of a non-answer to your question. While in a more free-form game I have no issue splitting the party, in something like this with more structured turns and important mapping I did not want to deal with the hassle. I guess if I allowed the party to split up I'd let them split a turn's action into different types. I also might make certain turns take longer though, like 2 turns to explore or give a penalty to forage, given that the whole group isn't executing it together. I'd be curious how it works out if it ends up happening for you!

turtleheart3 years ago

1. My players did so, with the hermits. So far, they haven't had many empty slots to fill, and have often been forced to leave something behind before setting out. 11 slots fill up quickly with the heirloom, general starting equipment, and the trade equipment.

2. A Rasp of Sand is my (and my players') first old-school module/system, and I don't have a good feeling for balance yet. So I'm cautious about deciding that something works in a way that's disadvantageous to the Heirs. I don't know how this particular ruling is working, as the fisher decided to change to magician soon after we encountered the issue.

3. I've had the group failed their morale rolls by differing amounts a couple of times (and thus being split), but they've been able to find each other again quickly. What's worked for me so far is to let them all declare what they're doing, and then we roll and narrate everything.

It's been a fun guessing game for the players to try to figure out where they are in relation to what they've already explored. Also, them knowing that the generation is over if anyone of them falls also adds some investment into what everyone is doing even when their Heir isn't present.

After some thought, why not allow the Heirs to split turns, but roll an encounter for each action they choose to do? Not splitting turns would be safer, but doing so allows them to do things faster - not usually relevant, but might be if an Heir is poisoned or such. This would also be easy to adapt to a split party - roll one encounter for each location.

qpop3 years ago

hey I'm curious how the turn splitting has been going, if you tried it. My gut said it would quickly kill them but maybe not! My players are in The Trench on Gen 4 and i cut out the "two moves to traverse" rule just because it felt like it would be too much of a slog. I like it thematically but we only play for a couple hours so wanted them to have more progress.

itch.io

Viewing post in A Couple of Questions