This original post will be edited as I go and as feedback comes in. Right now, I’m just feeling bad for having left a critical component of RG out of all the editions, and that’s the Abilities used in conflicts chart. Dúnadan Nature is wholly different than Mouse Nature, so consider this an add-on to v1.5 until I get my arse in gear and put out v1.6. Here’s my first, off-the-cuff crack at the two essential tables.
Going through this has really illustrated an issue, though: Mouse Nature is a bit more applicable to conflict actions whereas Dúnedan Nature is situational, which makes the tables look boring as hell and really non-dynamic. Oh well. Thankfully, there’s a difference between play at the table and reading a page with tables.
We probably should. I’m not sure why, when I was writing it up, I was so resistant to doing that, but I remember being very aware I was leaving it in.
I do, however, want to leave it in for Defend. Someone swinging a weapon can block swipes or jam a sword in a creature’s maw, or swing wildly to back away or force a creature to take another attack approach, etc. So how about:
Attack: Hunter
Defend: Hunter, Fighter or Animal Handler
Feint: Hunter
Maneuver: Hunter or Lore Master
Oh, cool! Leave Animal Handler for Maneuver or Feint, too, I think. And you could probably get away with leaving Fighter in Attack. You can always just put the puppy down. But the tricky stuff requires special knowledge. It’s messy, but I like it.
I’ll put it into Feint because Maneuver is already bulging. Coolness. So Fighter back into Attack, and Animal Handler into Feint.
How did the Dispo table look? Once I did it, I was like “So… it’s the MG table.” I really thought it would be a lot different, with a lot more Nature in there, but I had the Nature brain-fart as I was going along and realized Nature is so situational for Dunedain that it almost can’t just be put in as a static “you roll this” or “X is added to this.”
I’d leave fighter in the attack, and remove it from the defend; any idiot can kick a dog or beat it with a stick; not everyone can avoid being mauled in the process. Avoiding being mauled requires understanding how a beast will fight; that’s either hunter or Animal Handler…
And I’d swap hunter out of maneuver, simply so it’s not just an extended series of Hunter vs Nature; one skill vs one skill feels flat to me.
Good point, Aramis, though I think I’ll leave Hunter in Maneuver. Fighter is used in all Fight conflict actions, Hunter needs to be in all Fight Creature conflicts. I don’t want to penalize someone in that respect. That said, I’m open to others’ opinions on that.
Hmmm… though the more I look at it, the more I like only having a max of two skill options per action and Maneuver is looking bloated with Hunter in there.
Alrighty. I’m gunna stew over this a bit and work out a final file. My hope is that I can just upload it to the first post, overwriting the file that’s up now.
Interesting comments about how Nature isn’t used in Conflicts. That’s because you’re hacking. You need to hack the conflict mechanics and create conflicts appropriate to the setting that include Nature as a core ability.
Even that wouldn’t work because Dunadan Nature descriptors aren’t actions and thus Nature can’t apply to conflicts as static, constant abilities to be used. Players have to be inventive, and Nature will apply mostly to the social conflict types. I’m not sure how I’d hack the conflict mechanics. You’ve thought of just about any conflict that could possibly arise. . . jerk!
You just need to be creative and dig into your setting. You need to create conflicts that only work in your setting and build them out – weapons and all. Then you shall have a complete hack!
Yeah, it’ll end up in v1.6, which, by the way, will be devoid of any and all art. That really slims the doc down both in page and file size, but my god… layout is a bee-otch, although I might just be a moron, moving everything around manually. I can’t figure out how to make Adobe InDesign recognize how to just allow text to move between columns and pages like any other word processor. I have to manually cut and paste everything, which seems odd.
Click the little box on the lower right hand corner of the text box. This should turn your icon into a chain or something. Then click another box. Those two boxes are now linked.
I think… I think I love you, Luke. Just putting that out there. Let me go see now if I can’t get v1.6 done in like 5 min…
(Also figured out table borders so all the charts and tables in the draft will be much more reminiscent of the MG ones, as I’d originally meant for them to be.)
edit: YAY! It works like a dream. Wish that was the default. God, I’m an InDesign newb.
