Oddly, the Vote button is rendering on the substack editor but not in the post or the email! Here is the vote link for those who make it down to the comments. :(
I loved the behind the scenes on NPC construction. Interesting how Yellow Cloud is nowhere near the tank Anwen is, but does a lot of damage, and so makes for a dramatic fight.
Faster studying sounds so like Vahid. Or maybe that’s just wish fulfillment on my part. 😂
Indeed -- I think, in PbtA, opponents are slightly more reliable in dealing damage than PCs (opponents deal damage on misses, weak hits, and even some strong hits), so in general you'll see PCs being able to take 2-3 hits per every one hit a monster they're facing can take. Cranking up HP can make fights feel like a bit of a slog, where you're always making progress but never closing the deal.
In the case of Yana, one of the key things that made her more difficult, rather than ramping up damage and HP, was the approach to initiative in combat: In most fights, the PCs will always retain the initiative on a strong hit, but in this one, Yana took the initiative after Anwen's first Strong Hit -- she had a move that was relevant in the situation (rally her band) and Anwen gave her that opportunity. If Padrig had been present for the fight to give some cornerman advice, he might've been able to predict such a thing with a strong Seek Insight roll, but insight is not Anwen's strength. :-)
"Anwen endures the hit and suffers no HP damage, but making firt contact gives an opening for Yana to trigger one of her moves: rally her band. She mugs for the crowd and gets her people going, which raises the pressure on Anwen. We again push against her fear of not being taken seriously, and she has to master her emotions:"
This kind of thing is so interesting in RPGs - how to handle mentality, PC intimidation, etc. It's not mind control, and it uses the same mechanics as does physical violence, but outputs emotional results that aren't tracked as damage along a "stress" track necessarily. If she had failed under other circumstances, what would you have done? Started a 4 tick clock with 2 ticks already tocked? Imitate disadvantage?
Probably a debility is the most straightforward consequence -- "Miserable" forces disadvantage on Con and Cha, which I think works well here, because it would impact the combat but not make it unwinnable (which disadvantage on Strength might do).
"Anwen is a once-in-a-generation prodigy — the Iron Age equivalent of Mohammed Ali winning national championships as a young teen — but her live combat experience is still relatively narrow and she still hasn’t found her confidence yet." Our hero's so easy to root for. Love this.
Oddly, the Vote button is rendering on the substack editor but not in the post or the email! Here is the vote link for those who make it down to the comments. :(
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfCA-y_n3lUWGhN1xmsNnMdMkS12JyP0HQnngtfOVsL7-BsGw/viewform?usp=sf_link
I loved the behind the scenes on NPC construction. Interesting how Yellow Cloud is nowhere near the tank Anwen is, but does a lot of damage, and so makes for a dramatic fight.
Faster studying sounds so like Vahid. Or maybe that’s just wish fulfillment on my part. 😂
Indeed -- I think, in PbtA, opponents are slightly more reliable in dealing damage than PCs (opponents deal damage on misses, weak hits, and even some strong hits), so in general you'll see PCs being able to take 2-3 hits per every one hit a monster they're facing can take. Cranking up HP can make fights feel like a bit of a slog, where you're always making progress but never closing the deal.
In the case of Yana, one of the key things that made her more difficult, rather than ramping up damage and HP, was the approach to initiative in combat: In most fights, the PCs will always retain the initiative on a strong hit, but in this one, Yana took the initiative after Anwen's first Strong Hit -- she had a move that was relevant in the situation (rally her band) and Anwen gave her that opportunity. If Padrig had been present for the fight to give some cornerman advice, he might've been able to predict such a thing with a strong Seek Insight roll, but insight is not Anwen's strength. :-)
Went safety first to account for his recognition that it's not just knowledge he seeks, but also to protect others.
Great episode! Lovely mix of fiction and interesting mechanical insight.
"Anwen endures the hit and suffers no HP damage, but making firt contact gives an opening for Yana to trigger one of her moves: rally her band. She mugs for the crowd and gets her people going, which raises the pressure on Anwen. We again push against her fear of not being taken seriously, and she has to master her emotions:"
This kind of thing is so interesting in RPGs - how to handle mentality, PC intimidation, etc. It's not mind control, and it uses the same mechanics as does physical violence, but outputs emotional results that aren't tracked as damage along a "stress" track necessarily. If she had failed under other circumstances, what would you have done? Started a 4 tick clock with 2 ticks already tocked? Imitate disadvantage?
Probably a debility is the most straightforward consequence -- "Miserable" forces disadvantage on Con and Cha, which I think works well here, because it would impact the combat but not make it unwinnable (which disadvantage on Strength might do).
I just finished the fucking narrative version of the fight and holy shit I was on the edge of my seat at the end, reading faster than I could read.
"Anwen is a once-in-a-generation prodigy — the Iron Age equivalent of Mohammed Ali winning national championships as a young teen — but her live combat experience is still relatively narrow and she still hasn’t found her confidence yet." Our hero's so easy to root for. Love this.