A thousand Questions

I will be running my first Torchbearer game this weekend.

I can honestly say, I don’t feel ready.

There are so many rules to learn.

My first question.

Monsters Help Monsters
Monsters may act in groups, helping one another. When
factoring disposition, add one to their disposition for each
monster on the monster team. Use the Hit Points rules in
the Conflict chapter for determining when the monster team
members get knocked out as disposition drops.
For monster actions, add +1D to the monster’s skill or Nature
for each monster helping.

Does this mean, that in a conflict, a single monster acting against a PC would deal +1D for every monster helping that monster?

This feels too powerful?

Wouldn’t the margin of success be very high even at smaller numbers like for example a single monster being helped by 4 lower level monsters would be Nature +4D?

And this could potentially be the damage output 3 times every turn in a conflict?

Thank you!

The Greater the Order, the More Your Hurt
If your order of might is greater than your opponent’s, you
gain +1s per order greater for all actions in kill, capture and
drive off conflicts.

I listened to a let’s play…

And they ruled that you only get +1’s from your might difference if your roll succeeds

Have I missed the part of the book that explains clearly what a 1’s means?

Does it mean automatic successes that don’t need a roll?

In other words if you have Nature 4 and use it for a roll and you have +1’s on that roll.
Would the formula for successes be
4D6+1 ?

Also, does this rule work for monsters who roll against PC’s as well as PC’s who have a higher might than the monsters?

I think you may be reading +1D as +1 damage. It means they roll one more die. So, if one monster has a nature of 4, two of the same monsters would roll 5 dice. Since each die only has a 50% chance of rolling a success, the average roll went from 2 to 2.5 for a whole entire additional monster. Not too overpowered, especially since the players can help each other and hand each other dice as well.

Not sure why they did that. NM found it, see below.

In other words if you have Nature 4 and use it for a roll and you have +1’s on that roll.
Would the formula for successes be
4D6+1 ?

Assuming that you’re counting any roll of 4-6 as one S, then yes. It’s not a range of 5 to 25 successes.

Also, does this rule work for monsters who roll against PC’s as well as PC’s who have a higher might than the monsters?

I believe it does, yes.

Might cuts both ways, adventurers have natural advantages against the lower Might kobolds, for example.

+1s is described somewhere (I think when dealing with weapons) as +1 success to a successful roll. If that applies to Might +1s too (I believe it does) then:
My Nature gives me 4D, my order of might is 1 higher, for +1s. If I succeed at my test, then I have my margin of success increased by 1.

Yeah, found it. +1s is only if you’ve passed or tied the roll.

+1D, +1s and other terms are defined in Dice and Terms, pages 7-8.

Yes, monsters can help each other, but so can players. Considering the number of ways players can use traits and rewards (Fate and Persona), players have the advantage more often than not.

Also, just a bit of advice, make it clear to your players that the first session of Torchbearer is generally the hardest. There are no rewards available to mitigate bad rolls, and they won’t yet have acquired the player skills around managing turns and conditions. Don’t get discouraged! Instead, think of the game as the enemy of your party and learn how to defeat it! :wink:

I’ve shared some player best practices and more player best practices that might be useful.

So, they don’t get +1’s equal to every level of might higherthe the PC’s they are (per extra monster that helps) unless they tie or win the roll?

Then isn’t the wording for The Greater the Order, the More Your Hurt completely misleading?

The rules aren’t what I thought they were?

In other words… the rules written in “The Greater the Order, the More Your Hurt” only apply if the monster succeeds?

Also…

…can everyone always help in a conflict? Or only once per turn?

There is nothing that stops someone from helping every Action (of the 3 per round) that isn’t theirs on a round?
So if you plot Attack Attack Attack, and you are three PC’s who have Fighting 3, you’d roll 5 dice for each Attack?

The rule always applies, it’s just that +1s doesn’t mean what you thought it did. +1s (in all cases) means add a success if the roll succeeds or is a tie.

Yes.

.

Technically, in a conflict, not necessarily everyone can help. To help in a conflict, a character must have the exact skill that the rolling character is using. (For example, in most cases, a wizard won’t have the Fight skill and thus cannot help another character Attack in a Kill conflict). Also, if you have been knocked out of a conflict (been reduced to zero hit points), you cannot help. And, lastly, (and this is purely a judgement call on the GM and players), you should be able to explain just how your character is helping. Sometimes, that might not be possible. We’ve had players not help just because they can’t figure out a way or their character may not agree with the action in the first place. (For example, our halfling might not help with a feat of strength, or our paladin might decide to not help my assassin attack with poison.) But, otherwise, if your character can meet all of the requirements, sure, they can help with every action.

Pit Trap
The concealed pit is a favorite, used to catch or injure unwary
adventurers.
Trigger
A pit trap consists of a hole in the floor, usually covered by
a tarp that can be difficult to spot in the dim light of the
dungeon. Detecting this concealed trap requires an Ob 3
Scout test. Disarming it requires an Ob 1 Laborer test to fill
the hole with earth.
Trap
Anyone who walks into the trap must make an Ob 2 Health
test or fall in. If the test is failed, the GM may choose the
injured condition and allow the character to scramble out
of the pit, or invoke a twist and require the player to spend
a turn climbing out of the pit as the trappers close in to
discover what they’ve caught.

Here, does “require the player to spend a turn climbing out of the pit” mean that they have to make another test because of the twist? Potentially inputting yet another condition, or another twist?

Do tests in camp and town follow the same condition / twist rules as rolling in the adventure phase?

Yep x2