New to the Game System Questions

[Tancred]

Hi,

Just got Conspiracy of Shadows and the Companion and I really like it! However, there's a few rules points I'd like to clarify if possible, as I'm not sure I follow some of the combat/conflict resolution section:

1. How does the Counter modifier work? By taking a -2 penalty and succeeding in blocking an attack the character gets to make a riposte. Does this mean the parry becomes an attack? So for example, attacker gets 20 for his total, countering defender gets 24. Minus 2 leaves 22, so does that mean the attacker immediately takes 2 vitality damage?

2. For Combat Modifiers like Bind and Disarm, if successful the attack binds or disarms the target's weapon and does damage?

3. If a character is Stunned and doesn't get to react to the next attack, does this mean that whatever his attacker rolls next attack is a hit? So if he rolls 15, that's 15 Vitality damage?

4. Damage: If a character is physically wounded then suffers humiliation in a social situation, do these damages stack together? Or is Vitality damage only for physical wounds (since Medicine is used to heal it)?

5. Weapons and Armour: I noticed that the deadliest weapon listed are the swords and sabres. What's the rough upper limit for weapon bonuses, for say a pike or naraw sword? +4 bonus or thereabouts?

6. I noticed that some weapons seem to get strange bonuses and penalties. For example, long swords get +2 damage against hard armours, yet war clubs get +1 against anything - meaning the war club is the superior weapon against unarmoured opponents, right?

7. What is the bonus or penalty for unarmed attacks?

8. I have a hard time picturing momentum in missile combat. If successful with each shot, a character winning initiative could get off 4 bolts from a crossbow before anyone could return fire right? How do you handle weapons with a significant reloading time and still make the scene feel plausible?

9. Does Doom start at 0 or 1? In the text it says 1, but the sample characters all have Doom 0.

I realise these are a lot of questions, some of which get into some pretty picky details, but if you have any advice or clarification of these points I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Adrian.

[Keith Senkowski]

Hey Adrian.  Happy to clear anything up for ya.

1. Counter basically reverses the rolls in the conflict.  Let me illustrate:

Alexander rolls 20 for his attack and I roll 24 four my counter, giving me a 22 (cause of the -2 for the modifer).  My roll becomes an attack then and his ass suffers 2 Vitilaty.

2. Bind and Disarm do not do damage (and it should have said so in the text).  Success with those moves just ends in the result of disarming or binding up the enemy's weapon.

3. Yeah.  You don't want to get stunned.  It sucks.

4. Damage stacks, only the recovery times are wrong in the book.  It should be:

A character moves from Broken to Bloodied in three game sessions. He moves from Bloodied to Battered in two game sessions and from Battered to Bruised in one game session. A character who is Bruised becomes Fine in two scenes, regaining all lost Vitality Levels.

5. I have no hard upper limit to weapon bonus', but I would say +4 would be where I would cut it off.

6 & 7. Yeah.  I tried to take into account what I have read about different weapons, why they where developed and what they where most effective against.  I generally don't give a bonus or penalty for unarmed attacks cause my muddled logic is that weapons/armor should be something kinda special.

8. I really just ignore loading times and the like.  The idea is that success breeds more success, like in movies, which is more what I was going for than any sort of realistic set up.  Other games already do that kind of thing better than I could.  Also exchanges aren't hard set times.  It could be seconds, minutes, hours, days, whatever. 

9. The character sheet is wrong, which is my bad.  You start with a Rank of 1 cause all the characters are already doomed... ;)

Hope this answers your questions.  If you got any more or need me to go into more detail or just want to discuss some shit, let me know.

Keith

[Tancred]

Thanks a lot for the answers Keith, I think I'm getting it now.

[Tancred]

Actually, after some thought I have got a couple more questions.

How long does it take to heal Vitality damage if at the end of the conflict it's still in the fine range? Eg. A character with 14 Vitality gets knocked down to 9 Vitality. Does this instantly heal or take a couple of scenes?

How are Destiny points gained from negative descriptors? The rules talk about points gained at character creation but I assume Destiny points are awarded every time they come into play. Should that be 1 point every time they come into a scene (eg. during a conflict)?

Cheers,

Adrian

[Keith Senkowski]

Adrian,

Hmmm.  I guess I fucking missed something again.  Thor is going to be gloating in my ear about the need for a real editor... ;)  It should be instantly.

Destiny Points are earned through play in two ways.  One is the character's Drive.  If the Player sticks to it in his character's actions, gets a DP at the end of the session.  You also gain them from Dramatic Moments (pg 22).  At the end of an episode you vote (the Players) on the two best moments of the episode.  The best gets that player 2 DPs and the second best 1 DP.

Negative Descriptors just get you your starting pool.

Hope that helps.
Keith

[Tancred]

Adrian,

Hmmm.  I guess I fucking missed something again.  Thor is going to be gloating in my ear about the need for a real editor... ;)  It should be instantly.

Destiny Points are earned through play in two ways.  One is the character's Drive.  If the Player sticks to it in his character's actions, gets a DP at the end of the session.  You also gain them from Dramatic Moments (pg 22).  At the end of an episode you vote (the Players) on the two best moments of the episode.  The best gets that player 2 DPs and the second best 1 DP.

Negative Descriptors just get you your starting pool.

Hope that helps.
Keith

Thanks again!

The negative descriptors = destiny points is me reading things into the rules that aren't there, on reflection it is pretty clear how destiny points are gained in the book.

[Thor Olavsrud]

::gloats in Keith's ear::

[Iskander]

::Spends a Destiny Point to give Keith crabs::

::curses the redundancy of doing so::

[rrees]

• In Missile combat what does the target oppose the attack with in the roll?
• Is the cost for Attributes really meant to be the same as advancing skills?

[Tancred]

• In Missile combat what does the target oppose the attack with in the roll?
• Is the cost for Attributes really meant to be the same as advancing skills?

Don't know about your second question, but the first one has come up here before sometime. I'm pretty certain the target rolls REF + Melee to dodge/defend.

[Keith Senkowski]

• In Missile combat what does the target oppose the attack with in the roll?
• Is the cost for Attributes really meant to be the same as advancing skills?

Hey,

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.  I was in Mexico and cut off from the digital world.

Adrian is right about the Missile combat and yes the advancement for Skills and Attributes is supposed to be the same.  If ya got any more questions feel free to ask.  Thanks.

Keith

[rrees]

Thanks for the answers. I also notice that there seems to be some changes between Doom in the Revised Edition and the way it is currently being used. Are these changes on in one place somewhere?

[Keith Senkowski]

Nah Doom is used the same as in the book.  I just came up with a modified version of it for the con scenario I wrote.  The version in the book is meant to unfold over several sessions, while the version in the con scenario is meant to get at least one person to jump off the deep end.

Keith