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Post by runequester on Feb 2, 2018 19:53:57 GMT
Experienced GM but new to this system, so I was hoping people could help with a few questions.
In no particular order:
A: Let's say a character gets struck by a bad guy and takes 4 points of damage, applied to their Strength.
Now, if the character only has 3 Strength, would I just assign the remaining point of Damage to another attribute that makes sense or should I drop the extra point?
If someone experienced can give me an example or two with how you assign damage in a play session, that'd be great.
B: Is the expectation that characters only tend to do one action and one reaction each round of combat,or should I let them be more open-ended ?
In other words, is multiple actions in a round supposed to be common or unusual ?
C: With Story Points, how do you suggest encouraging their use ? The games we play don't tend to involve "drama" points as such, and I know it's a vital part of the flow of the game.
D: Would you replenish any story points at the end of a game session?
Any other tips that aren't obvious from the book?
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Post by Stormcrow on Feb 3, 2018 14:14:15 GMT
A. Damage
If you had decided before the damage had been done that damage would only affect Strength, then that's all it will affect, and the leftover will be lost. But damage rarely affects only Strength. Maybe if you were hit by a Strength-reducing ray that might happen, but physical damage nearly always also results in a loss of Resolve as well, and losing Coordination is common. I prefer to spread damage out among the attributes that makes sense according to the particular hit.
B. Multiple Actions
The only expectation is that the GM will decide whether the number of things a character wants to do simultaneously are possible. If a player says, "I'll attack the first enemy with my two-handed sword, the second with my two-handed axe, and the third with my rocket launcher," and his character is a human, the GM might be justified in asking, "ORLY?"
Then there's a practical limitation, as each additional action will garner a cumulative -2. You'll eventually reach a point of impotence.
Most of the time you'll probably just want to take one action, though some reactions might come along and you can't control that much. Sometimes you'll want to do more than one thing, usually in different phases of an extended conflict. I wouldn't find it unusual for someone to want to, say, "move" in one phase and then "fight" in another. The fighting would be at -2, because they'd already moved.
C. Refreshing Story Points
Yes, you're probably going to want to refresh all Story Points between adventures. As with everything else, things are kept loose and up to the GM so they can better reflect your game. In typical Doctor Who stories, characters aren't tired from previous adventures; they have full Story Points. If you think there's a reason a character is still affected by the previous adventure, you would be justified in not refreshing all Story Points.
Suppose, for instance, that a player made some poor choices in the previous adventure, leading their character to be haunted by what happened. Not refreshing all (or any!) Story Points might make sense here.
D. Any Other Tips
My most common advice has to do with Story Points. As I say, a game of Doctor Who should be a deathtrap to anyone without Story Points. Encourage players to regain them by letting themselves be captured, letting their plans fail, letting their Bad Traits mess something up, or anything else that makes the action more interesting. Don't reward them for thespianism; players who can deliver the most Shakespearean of prose or the grungiest emo through the mouths of their characters haven't made the action more interesting.
Since you're experienced with other RPGs, my other advice is not to be quite so rigid in following the rules as in other games. I don't mean "rule zero"; I mean the Doctor Who rules are designed to be wibbly-wobbly (I heard that phrase somewhere), so that you can use them to reflect what happens to your character. They do NOT model or simulate anything, and make little sense if you don't keep a firm hand on the reins.
Here's an example of that. A TL5 bus driver might have Transport 2 skill, but that doesn't mean he knows how to pilot a TL5 rocket ship or even a TL5 sailboat. What your skills actually allow you to do depends on your background, which you're supposed to write up briefly and isn't just a bit of fluff. Our bus driver, who has spent his whole life in the city, knows how to drive buses, and probably cars, he can probably drive large trucks with only a -1 penalty and motorboats with a -2 penalty, and he can't sail a boat, fly a jet, or control a rocket at all. The rules don't tell you this; the character sheet doesn't tell you this; you have to use your judgment to apply the rules correctly. This is true of everything in the game. Nothing is set in stone.
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Post by Escher on Feb 3, 2018 14:42:28 GMT
B: Is the expectation that characters only tend to do one action and one reaction each round of combat,or should I let them be more open-ended ? In other words, is multiple actions in a round supposed to be common or unusual ? A character can act once in each phase if they want (Talk, Move, Do, Fight), but there are penalties. Example: dwaitas.proboards.com/thread/2380/multiple-actions-penalties
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Post by runequester on Feb 3, 2018 21:12:05 GMT
Super helpful advice guys/gals, thank you so much.
A further question:
Most games have a "observation" type of skill. What would you roll to spot things in your surroundings? We tried both Awareness + Survival (outdoors) and Awareness + Subterfuge but neither felt quite right.
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Post by CountClockwise on Feb 3, 2018 23:05:51 GMT
I personally use Ingenuity and Awareness for generic perception and awareness and a corresponding skill if you're looking for anything specific such as wounds for a medicine roll. Other vortex system branches use this methodology and while I argue that this is the 'official' way to do it, loads of GM's do it their own way
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Post by runequester on Feb 4, 2018 5:08:23 GMT
I just realized the book suggests you can roll two attributes.
I didn't even think about that, probably from years of White Wolf games :-)
Thanks!
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