How should I visualize progress moves?
How should I visualize progress moves? I'm having some trouble with these. I can have a raider completely beaten and defeated with all 10 progress boxes filled, but further damage won't do anything. If I get unlucky and roll two 10s on the End The Fight move, I will fail to kill him and have a dire consequence (being mortally wounded, having someone with me killed, losing an important objective or vow, etc.)
Am I understanding this correctly? Is there a way to defeat enemies without giving them a small chance of causing serious damage in return? In a game with ~4 PCs (our current gaming group), this'll come up sooner or later.
EDIT: Also, how do progress moves work for journeys? If you're nearly there at, say, 9 boxes filled, what happens when you fail the roll and have to reset to 1 box? Did we discover that Rivendell has been burned to the ground and we have to track down the survivors to get where we wanted to go, or something like that?
Am I understanding this correctly? Is there a way to defeat enemies without giving them a small chance of causing serious damage in return? In a game with ~4 PCs (our current gaming group), this'll come up sooner or later.
EDIT: Also, how do progress moves work for journeys? If you're nearly there at, say, 9 boxes filled, what happens when you fail the roll and have to reset to 1 box? Did we discover that Rivendell has been burned to the ground and we have to track down the survivors to get where we wanted to go, or something like that?
I’ve been houseruling that if I fill all 10 boxes, I can’t miss. It’s either a strong or weak hit.
ReplyDeleteHi, Joel Britton. Yes, there's always a chance of outright failure, even when you've got 10 progress. It's -- as you say -- only a small chance, (1%), but a chance nonetheless. If it does happen, consider what might have occurred to turn the tables so suddenly. Your foe has one surprise left in him. You defeat the person in front of you, but feel a sword pressed to your back as the others you weren't aware of get the drop on you. One of the guys you thought had dropped earlier in the fight manages to fire one more arrow, and deals a grievous wound. The fight was a distraction, and your true objective is lost to you.
ReplyDeleteIn short, embrace the improbable event and bend the narrative to make it work. Hopefully, awesome stories follow.
For journeys, it sounds like you have a sense of things. Just getting lost is probably the most boring option. In most cases, you will face something at your assumed destination which undermines your purpose there. Your example is a great one. If you are GM'ing, imagine how fate might conspire against your PC's, or how their enemies might be one step ahead of them.
You can also feel free to house rule it, as Eric Bright suggests. That'd be fine, but I'd hate to miss out on the occasional "oh, crap" moments that happen when you see those double 0's in a progress roll. It might take a bit of creative energy to make it work in your story, but it'll probably be worth it.
With 4 players, I would suggest using shared progress tracks in fights when you can. It'll reduce the number of End the Fight rolls, and keep the math weighted as it should be. When you Reach Your Destination, only one player makes the move, so more players won't shift the odds at all.
Also, if one of your players picks up the Loyalist asset (here in the Asset Workshop, and it'll be part of the core set this month), you can shift the math even a bit further away from catastrophic misses on a progress move.
That's an excellent answer. Thank you! It's really nice being able to get solid responses so quickly. Much appreciated!
ReplyDelete