General Stupidity (split)

[Krammer]

Recently, we were on a boat, and one of our characters was in the crows nest. there were some people below the deck coming after us, with the intent of killing us. we assumed they were going to open the hatch to get out on the deck, the character in the crows nest decided to jump down with his sword pointed down, to get the guys when they came out.
  Well.... the guy landed before the hatch opened, and he broke through, then landed on the stairs below. he recieved severe falling damage, and while he was lying there in pain, another sailor stabbed him in the belly, giving him a level 3 wound there.  yeah, it was a stupid thing to do

[Brian Leybourne]

Split because the original topic was over 4 months old.

Brian.

[Ithron]

A PC of a new player in a little adventure I was Seneschaling with the QS rules was fighting a pretty evenly matched bandit. For the first couple of exchanges I gave some hints of how to attack/defend. Then, for the first exchange in a round, the bandit had a go at a swing for 6 dice or so, to which the unarmoured PC promptly replied he was blocking with 2 dice. I gave him a strange look, he gave me a confused look, and shortly thereafter died. Anyway, we ran out of time to finish the combat with the other PCs that session, so continued it later on. In that session, another player's PC had received a crossbow bolt through his breastplate into his chest from somewhere off in the darkness (it was night and he had been near a fire) for a level 3 wound. That player couldn't make it to the next session, so we let the player of the deceased PC use the away player's noble instead. Anyway, now under new control, he decided that the best course of action was to charge, crossbow bolt and all, off into the darkness where he had been shot from. Another bolt pierced his armour and hit him in the stomach, but only did a level 1 wound (I imagine the full rules could have dealt with these bolts better). So he continued charging. He somehow found the bandit, and proceeded to use his now puny combat pool to prevent the bandit's attack at his leg from inflicting any more than a level 5 wound. Fortunately, before the bandit could pick up the PC's warhammer and smash his head in, another PC came running to save his noble, chanting and waving his arms around, causing the bandit to piss bolt.

After that the players understood this wasn't D&D.

Ithron

[Ingenious]

Okay, one common rule of thumb I give for all seneschals running their first game of TROS. Download the combat simulator, and have your players download it, or just all do a pre-game one on one between player and seneschal. This is to illustrate to them the lethality of the TROS combat system, and might enlighten them that if they go off and be careless like a D&D player might, that they will most likely die. Having been a study of TROS before I ever played the game, this helped my character tremendously, surviving some very hairy situations, etc. It also helped me get a feel for the combat and the proper allocation of dice.... especially after estimating that some of my opponents had like a 20+ CP... after estimating I realized that I made an error in jugement as a level 3 wound to the neck didnt seem to slow one guy down that much...
Then again, this might not help at all because players might be too used to crazy styles of play to be had with D&D type systems.. etc.

And beleive me, I have been there as the player that always said 'chaaaaaaaaarge!!!!' when jumping over a rock and finding a chimera and not having a care in the world what I was fighting.

-Ingenious

[Ithron]

If other groups are similar to mine, I'd actually give quite different advice to people trying out TROS with the QS rules.

Imo, getting everyone to play with the combat sim when no one has the actual rule book just makes things look daunting. Instead, I like having some fun little fights with the rules you're actually using, helping the PCs out a bit to begin with and teling them about the (relatively few QS) maneuvers as you get to situations where they are useful.

I also believe a little adventure in which new characters can be easily incorporated in case someone dies is better than holding duels between player and Seneschal. That way, players get to learn the mechanics of combat at the same time as things like getting a feel for SAs, the different way TROS is run, and having fun playing an adventure. Not only does this give an introduction to the game rather than just an introduction to combat mechanics, but also allows for many entertaining choices like those mentioned in previous messages to occur.

YMMV

Ithron

[Judd]

My first game of TROS had an opening scene with the players at a dueling bridge, watching the judicial duels of the day.  I made up all of the duellist as NPC's, making up everything from farmers with staves to knights in heavy armor, going at it with heavy weapons.  

Then the players took those roles and fought with them, while their PC's watched on.

The first fight were two farmers with sticks and they swung at each other simultaneously and broke each other, one's arm and the other's collarbone.  Nasty, nasty stuff.  

The duel between two professional duellists was a fine back and forth with a cut to the leg deciding the first blood match.

They learned, though, how nasty swinging a big piece of wood or metal at someone else and trying to kill them with it can be and they did so without risk to their PC's life and limb.  

Giving the players and opportunity to take the combat for a test drive, even while their PC is watching, to aid in the learning curve is a good idea when introducing the Riddle.

I realize I've gone on and on about the Duelling Bridge as an intro tool.  Forgive me if you've read this before and I've wasted your time but I think it is a valuable concept and can cut down on the stupid factor.

EDIT:  tacked on last sentence.

[The big blue ape]

Krammer, you know it woold have been great if I had landed right