Acording to this thread, David himself claims she’s rather young. I would say at the very most 30.
Wanderer, I did understand what noclue was saying and I agree that the book does explain how to set Obs properly — what I mean is that his point of “achieving the goal without getting conditions because of it” was a part of the Ob tests that I didn’t consider before. Therefore, in my above example (new trail Ob 6), I can lower my Ob if I want to “cut them some slack” (maybe there are good vantage points to make Pathfinder easier) if my players are hurting or raise the Ob for a really test-y test and end up with either a juicy twist or a condition. Again, I know the book states how to set Obs properly, I just “found out” that I can play with this a bit to get an effect.
I ask about Gwen because 40 seems about right, maybe even 50 or 60. She is, after all, the Matriarch and I don’t think they hand those out to mice in their 20s. But in the last comic, she kisses Saxon like they have something going and I look at Saxon’s stats and he’s 28! Is there some Ashton Kutcher-Demi Moore thing going on here? Anyway, the info would also be useful for handing out ages to player and npc mice later on. I’m coming from D&D wherein dwarves and elves age differently from humans so I had to know if there was something like that going on here too.
Where are you seeing that you can “play with” the Obstacles? That’s not what James and I are saying. Look again at his baking bread example. Baking bread for a group of mice is everyday work, but it’s still difficult. How does the Baker accomplish this regularly? She gets hungry doing it. Same with Saxon blazing the new trail. He’s not going to fail; he’s going to succeed with a condition.
Don’t try to reinforce this (or generate twists) by messing with the Obstacles. It is the nature of players and their dice to create all sorts of complications to the situations with which they are presented. Furthermore, both passed and failed tests are necessary for advancement. Because of that, you’ll often have players testing with an eye toward failure; whether it’s eschewing help, volunteering to use their lower-rated skills, or hindering themselves with Traits (sometimes all three on one roll). Do not undercut this player choice by varying the Obstacles. Set the Ob objectively, let the players decide how they want to tackle the problem, and then introduce conditions or twists in the event of failure.
Ice, I would tend towards setting obs per the book and then let the players create, or justify, advantages if they want them. They can always use wises to declare things that become advantages (just make sure to let them know what happens if they fail the wise test). If you hand those to them, they’re less likely to bring their wises in.
xposted with Wanderer
EDIT: actually, let me say that more strongly. If the players want a mechanical advantage, ask for a roll, even if you’ve already established the color. So, if you say the ground is firm and they want some kind of advantage for that, still make them roll an appropriate test. Sure, the ground is generally firm here, roll scouting, if you beat the ob then that’s an advantage for your side, if you do not succeed, then there is a twist or a condition.
Hmmm… he says she’s been in the position for several years, and she was young when she was raised to the position. 30 is too young, I’d say she was raised BEFORE 30, add several years, so she’s at least 40 now.
Coming from D&D and other games, I guess I have to unlearn bending things (fudging dice rolls and target numbers has been “normal” for me for some time now). Excellent example to prove your point though!
I totally forgot about that! Yeah, players would have to fail too. Again, coming from a system where winning is what it’s all about, I’m slow in this “lose-to-win” scenario. I guess if my players do want to do a difficult thing, then they probably want to fail, so I should set things “as written.”
Point taken, and thanks to your (and Wanderer’s) examples, I now see more clearly why I would NOT want to mess with the Ob numbers.