Kobold Press - AGE System Failure Stunt Options

[Jekias]

Was reading my Kobold Press email and there was a link to some AGE material. So that everyone here can have a look, heres the link to the article: http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/front- ... FaG4lEZ_mc

Blurb:

Some people hate to fail. Others relish complicating their lives. Below, you’ll find options for mitigating failure for those who want the chance to recover somewhat and options for those who want to make their lives as difficult as possible.

[shonuff]

The mitigating failure are nice, but I think the Relishing Failure stunts are not only too severe but out-of-place for a roll you miss.

[Elfie]

I know this is third-party material, but I'm getting a little worried about the stunt system getting TOO big. Already my players are shuffling through at least 3 piece of paper when picking stunts. There's the two-sider for standard stunts (up to set 2), There's a couple pages worth of new spell stunts from the set 3 playtest. My players have access to some of the "Gifts of the Gods" stunts from the supplemental AGE material (and KQ). I'd consider adding these stunts, but it's getting a little unwieldy.

It feels like picking stunts is what slows combat down more than anything else. More choices just seems to make decisions take even longer. I actually considered last night whether each player should get their own person stunt list and they earn new stunts on level-up. So there would still be variety in stunts, but everyone would only have access to the ones that they personally picked. And if something granted them a discount on a stunt, that also grants that stunt for free. If they already picked this stunt as one of their personal stunts, they can now pick something else to fill that slot. Maybe like... Start the game with 2 combat or spell stunts and 2 exploration or RP stunts. Every time they level, gain 1 combat or spell stunt and 1 exploration or RP stunt.

I dunno... just something I was rolling around in my head. Probably what I'll actually do is just build a little web app that has every stunt available in the (/my) game, let the user uncheck ones they never use or don't care about, and produce a nicely printable result so that everyone can have their own person list of stunts that they actually use. Just something I thought might speed up combat a bit.

[NickMiddleton]

I think I have my fumble mechanic for AGE:

Any roll of triple 1 is an automatic failure and a POSSIBLE fumble: the player should re roll the test and if they FAIL again with doubles the GM gets to use the complication stunts. If the player succeeds with doubles they get to apply the mitigating stunts. A success or failure without doubles on this second roll just means the original failure stands as a failure.

So they'll rarely come in to play (1/216 before it's even possible, and even then it depends on the characters chance of success at the task at hand) and more capably characters will have a meaningful chance to mitigate their failures.

Now, just got to persuade my local group to play some more DA...



NDM

[Neith]

We started using the Failure Stunts in our last session, during the Oleander Maw. The room the players were in was set on fire, and we justified the characters' Permanent Damage with elements in the room catching fire, them tripping into burning debris, or collapsing pieces of flaming room falling onto them. All but one of the party members received permanent scars because of it.

We use both charts and when a fumble is made, they roll a separate d6 (evens using the "good" chart, odds gets you the "relishing failure" chart).

At first the players were outraged at having to scar their characters for life, but I explained that this isn't some happy-go-lucky fantasy D&D game -- its supposed a more serious, dark RPG. You *will* get hurt, and there should always be a sense that you won't make it through the campaign. It brings in a more realistic atmosphere wherein, if you fight in a burning room for 12+ rounds, you're going to get badly burnt!

Those failures really helped in finally bringing that point home for my group. I'm in no way an "evil" GM, but in that light, I love those failure stunts.