snuh2
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Posts posted by snuh2
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I say it is OK to ignore Chaos Stars on occasion (and banes as well) or make them minor effects. Everything in moderation. Chaos Stars represent an opportunity to modify the story, but you don't have to if it doesn't feel right. You don't want to punish players for making a bunch of dice rolls. Example:
In a recent battle, a player had to make a bunch of skill checks because of some environmental effects and some triggered observation checks. After rolling a couple double banes and a Chaos Star in previous checks, I then asked him to give me another observation check and he said "No! I don't want to notice anything, I don't want to look around! I have a really simple goal that I'm trying to achieve and I'm tired of losing stress and -bleep!- going wrong due to skill checks!"
Granted, it was just a series of bad rolls, but he was right: Every chance to roll dice is not necessarily also a chance to have something go awry. So while I almost always use Chaos Star and Bane effects, I view them as a tool that needs to be used with discretion.
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Ha! I can empathize. The WFRP3 rules suffer from poor organization and lack of clarity. That said, it's one of those games that sounds SOOOOOO much more complex than it really is. Once I actually sat down and played it, it was really easy. Sure we made a few rules mistakes here and there, but it's a lot less finicky and rules-heavy than say, D&D 3rd or 4th eds. I've been playing RPGs for almost 20 years no (Really?!? ****.) and this one is pretty middling in complexity.
Get thee to a friendly local game store for someone to teach you the game (Budapest you say? I've heard good things about Gémklub) or have someone run an intro game for you over the internet. It'll be easy.
As for your question about FUN vs COMPLEXITY, the truth is gamers are both blessed and cursed with a vibrant and diverse market for games. There are scores of really great and really simple RPGs in the market, but for those who prefer their games crunchier, there are plenty of complex games as well. The bad news, it can be pretty hard to rally a group for any given game because it's a small and fragmented market. Heck, as you noted it can be hard to get a good game of D&D together, and that's the 800lbs owlbear in the market!
Cheers!
Stealthy/Subtle Spellcasting
in WFRP Rules Questions
Posted
A player in my PBeM game wants to cast Bewilder out-of-combat on an inspector who is looking over their wagon for smuggled goods. He's of course hoping that the Perplexed condition is going to reduce the inspector's Observation check and hopefully miss some of their items.
How would you adjudicate subtle spellcasting? I want to be very careful here, because if it ends up being too easy, I'll have set a precedent that I'll later regret. If I make it too hard, I deny the character a chance to do cool things. My first inclination is something like:
To cast undetected: Stealth vs Observation, +1 Misfortune Die per spell rank (or Challenge Die?)
In addition, the spellcasting check itself gains +1 Challenge Die.
I'm somewhat worried about power abuse, so I would likely also restrict this only to spells that "feel" like they could be stealthily case. Magic Dart, no - Bewilder, yes. Or would you not allow subtle casting at all?
Thanks!