Buying Initiative and Perception

[nsruf]

The cost of buying initiative depends on the opponent's Per. But as Seneschal, I don't usually tell my players the attribute values of npcs.

So how do you handle it? Tell them in advance how difficult buing init is going to be, or have them allocate dice and let them fail if it's too little?

[bergh]

make it so that players should say if they want to buy initiative, and then you give them the Per, and then they can't back away.

Then players won't be shouting "Buy inititive" all the time. actully this also seems realistic to me, if a figthers strategy is to suddenly go for a quick blow, hoping to catch his opponent off guard, then i think he can't back away i the middle of his manouver, becouse his opponent already had figured him out!.

so make the players say that they wan't to buy it, and then there are no backing out of it again.
 
hope all this make sense.

[nsruf]

Sounds good. And I suppose a PC who hasn't got enough dice empties his CP to no effect?

The only drawback I see is that I, as Seneschal, know the PCs's Per scores and have to make deliberate mistakes to keep it fair.

[bergh]

Sounds good. And I suppose a PC who hasn't got enough dice empties his CP to no effect?

A: correct.

The only drawback I see is that I, as Seneschal, know the PCs's Per scores and have to make deliberate mistakes to keep it fair.The only drawback I see is that I, as Seneschal, know the PCs's Per scores and have to make deliberate mistakes to keep it fair.

A: yes, is thatnot  part of being the seneschal? or else it would be boring for the player's to setup ambushed and such, if your NPC's always know what's going on.

Personaly i always try to make all my NPC as "human" as i can, that means that almost non of my NPC's fight to the death if they can avoid it.

I imagine it be be a "different" game if your NPC's always know your players stats and what they are doing.....?

It's a game played in your head, you don't have to worry about being fair to the players or your NPC's, and you don't have to follow ANY rules, some times i even cheat with my rolls, adding a few extra dices after i have rolled and such, just to give the players a better game.

IT'S NOT A COMPUTER GAME!

[Tash]

I think the book said ti best: to play fair you need to cheat like a demon behind your screen.

[nsruf]

A: yes, is thatnot  part of being the seneschal? or else it would be boring for the player's to setup ambushed and such, if your NPC's always know what's going on.

There is a whole lot of difference between screwing over the players by not allowing their plans to work or having npcs waste their CP on a regular basis. But you are right that TROS requires the Seneschal to play npcs suboptimally in combat because player skill is such a big factor.

It's a game played in your head, you don't have to worry about being fair to the players

I wholeheartedly disagree. IMO, being fair to the players is essential, or there is no mutual trust and the game dies.

IT'S NOT A COMPUTER GAME!

I never said that. I was just curious how you all handle a rule that basically requires me to give exact npc stats to my players. Something I try to avoid for what I think are obvious reasons.

[nsruf]

I think the book said ti best: to play fair you need to cheat like a demon behind your screen.

What screen? I don't need no stinkin' screen to hide from my players;)

[Lance D. Allen]

No no, see, the screen isn't to hide anything. It is to make vital information easily available to the Seneschal and players. The fact that you roll your dice behind it, and occasionally giggle like a maniac is entirely coincidental.

[Tash]

What wolfen said, my screen is for important game related info.  Never mind the fact that its a D&D screen....

[bottleneck]

[quote="nsrufI was just curious how you all handle a rule that basically requires me to give exact npc stats to my players. Something I try to avoid for what I think are obvious reasons.[/quote]

well - they find out the stats the hard way, so it's not really a problem. You can find the NPC's strength score too, simply let yourself be hit and see how much damage you take...

If you commit yourself to buying initiative (without knowing their PER in advance), then you should at least find out how difficult/easy it is.

Anyway, if someone buys initiative, chances are this is the last round those stats are important anyway.



oh, and you should always have a screen/whatever to throw dice behind. At least outside combat. Sometimes you need to cheat at the dramatically appropriate moment, or make convenient adding errors to keep the party alive.