SIFRP QUESTIONS

[Talassa]

Mercenaries (page 107)

I don't understand how to pay for mercenary units, the table list a +1* cost modifier to the base power cost determined by the training level, but their entry list a Wealth cost without specifing if this cost substitutes or suplements the power one.

My guess is that you have to replave the normal base power cost with the wealth cost and pay a +1 Power cost on the top of it. Am I right?

According to the rules as written, they would cost a Base Power Cost (Training, Page 105), plus the cost as shown in Table 6-8: Unit Types (Page 107).

According to Table 6-8, there is an additional cost in wealth, according to training.

As it stands, two veteran units of mercenaries would cost 12 Power and 12 Wealth.

Base Power 5 + 1 = 6 power each (12 Power) and,
Wealth - 6 each (12 Power)

Two veteran units of infantry would cost 18 Power and 0 Wealth.

Mercenaries have slighty better Stats than Infrantry (see Table 10-1, Page 172), but have worse Discipline (Table 6-8, Page 107).

[soundchaser]

Given the errata and clarifications being on the somewhat weighty side, is there any news about a 2nd printing that includes corrections?

[discuit]

Can anyone from GR confirm if and or when the errata/revisions are added to the core pdf, will those who have already purchased it get an alert to dl the updated one?

I have never bought a pdf from your company, but i know this is normal from a few other companies i have purchased pdf's from.

Cheers.

[Ironic Name]

Regarding Banner Houses:

I am under the impression that Banner Houses do not roll for House Fortunes. Therefore, what effect do the Law, Population, Wealth assets (i.e. Mines, Artisans, etc) and such have?

I am assuming a Banner House's Influence is accounted for by the "bonus test die" that the main house gets, but I am wondering how they benefit from these other abilities and items.

For instance, if a Banner House has a Mine, does that +5 to House Fortune Roll go to waste? Does it get added to the Main House's HF Roll? Does it get added to the HF Roll if a character from the Main House spends a Destiny Point to pass off a bad roll to said Banner House?

Variations on these questions are for all the Wealth investments as well as for the Banner House's Law and Population.

Also, are Banner Houses able to purchase their own Banner Houses, therefore perpetuating the feudal model (which then results in many new questions), or is that considedered unnecessarily in-depth for the House creation system's purposes?

[Davechan]

Also, are Banner Houses able to purchase their own Banner Houses, therefore perpetuating the feudal model (which then results in many new questions), or is that considedered unnecessarily in-depth for the House creation system's purposes?

Other questions aside, I'd say that for the purposes of the House Creation system, your (as in the players') banner houses probably couldn't have banner houses of their own. (Obviously, the players' house may be a banner house of another banner house, but let's not get dug in too deep ^_^ ) Largely I'd say this because the only rules that exist for creating banner houses state that a banner house is created on 5d6 per stat, so you could (assuming you kept rolling over 20 on their Power) end up with a set of infinitely recursive banner houses. Whilst any even halfway sensible Narrator would call shenanigans on this, I think the fact that they'd have to demonstrates that you are only supposed to have direct banner houses of your own player-created house. In this, I'd say that doing so would be unnecessarily in-depth as you put it.[/quote]

[BRebel]

On page 160, it specifies that "stand up" is a greater action if you have an armor rating of 6 or higher. This seems to conflict with the Armor Mastery benefits. For instance, a character without Armor Mastery wearing a breastplate (Armor rating 5) could stand as a lesser action, while a so-called master in the same armor would require a greater action to stand.

It seems more correct to use the armor rating of the equipment itself for purposes of determining the level of action required, or alternatively using some measure based on bulk since the armor mastery benefits would only help a "stand up" action. Thoughts?

edit: That's what I get for posting in right before bed. Replaced "armor penalty" with "bulk" above - although it seems reasonable that a scale built on armor penalty could work as well if you did not want to give an additional advantage to folks with Armor Mastery.

[cislunar]

The "double subtraction" effects of Bulk implied in the rules as written, and backed up by the sample character errata here, lead to funky results as bulk increases.

Standard Movement (Athletics 2+) = 4 + (Run/2) - (Bulk/2)
Sprint Move = (Standard Movement * 4) - Bulk

Here is an example. A knight with Plate Armor (Bulk 3), a Large Shield (Bulk 1), and a War Lance (Bulk 2), is carrying a total Bulk of 6, with no Run specialty.

Standard Move:
4 + 0 - (6/2) = 1

Sprint:
(1 * 4) - 6 = 0

So, this knight can still move one meter/square if he takes a Lesser action move, or even move two meters/squares if he takes two lesser move actions, but he goes exactly nowhere if he sprints with a greater action.

Using Bulk twice in these calculations is going to lead to weird results from plausible equipment kits.

Possible solutions/ work-arounds:

- Sprint could have a minimum value of ( Movement * 2 ) to make it no worse than taking two lesser moves.

- The Sprint formula could be changed to:

Athletics 2+: 16 + (Run * 2) - ( Bulk *2 )
Athletics 1: 12 + (Run * 2) - ( Bulk *2 )

Our knight above would end up with Move 1 (unchanged), and a Sprint of 4 (4 = 16 + 0 - 12).

[hedgewizard]

The "double subtraction" effects of Bulk implied in the rules as written, and backed up by the sample character errata here, lead to funky results as bulk increases.

Standard Movement (Athletics 2+) = 4 + (Run/2) - (Bulk/2)
Sprint Move = (Standard Movement * 4) - Bulk

Here is an example. A knight with Plate Armor (Bulk 3), a Large Shield (Bulk 1), and a War Lance (Bulk 2), is carrying a total Bulk of 6, with no Run specialty.

Standard Move:
4 + 0 - (6/2) = 1

Sprint:
(1 * 4) - 6 = 0

...stuff...

p 151: Bulk cannot reduce your move below 1 yard or your sprint speed below 4 yards.

[cislunar]

p 151: Bulk cannot reduce your move below 1 yard or your sprint speed below 4 yards.

Thanks!

I still think it's funky, though less so than I initially thought.

[NRP]

Is there an upper limit to skills purchased with Blood of Heroes, or can the skill theoretically be increased infinitely?

[BRebel]

Page 90, Lascivious.

My read of this drawback is that you must use Seduce as the first intrigue attempt, regardless of gender/sexual orientation of the character and target.

This seems a bit odd to me based on my reading of Seduce (Page 144) - wouldn't it be more correct to have it depend on your characters sexual orientation/proclivities? Or is Seduce considered more mechanically as any attempt to _temporarily_ gain the friendship of an NC, even for means that do not include bedding? If that reading is correct, I see the Charm technique for making long term relationships with NCs while Seduce is for making brief friendships that will falter over time. I can see Lascivious as written if that is the case.

Further, Lascivious, Threatening and Furious all seem to have confusing contradictions if they are taken together, since each requires a different 'first persuasion action'. I don't know how these would resolve.

[Davechan]

On the Lasciviousness front, I think it would be a fair call to say you only had to make Seduction your first attempt against "appropriate" characters. Though, yeah, I think it can also work "as written" if you just assume the overall sleaziness of the character prejudices them towards temporary rather than long-lasting relationships including in the non-sexual sense. I think Littlefinger could be seen in this kind of light. He's funny and witty and everything, but he doesn;t really make friends, and everyone who deals with him tends to be sluightly mistrustful and left feeling a little dirty. *grin* (Seduce as written in the rules does seem to be focused on the physical act, though).

As for stacking the "first persuasion action" Drawbacks, I personally would apply whichever seemed the most appropriate for a given situation. Or, just not allow the player to take more than one of them.

[Kilted Raven]

Could we keep this thread to questions for GR please? I appreciate folk are trying to helpful but it's rapidly turning into a general debate on rules and we've got a whole board for that.
If you want to comment on someone else's question, could you start a thread or something?

No offense to anyone here, but this is the offical Q&A thread after all. That means we do the Qs, GR does the As.

[ceck]

page 161
Defeat & Consequences
Maimed

Could you explain this better?
Should the loser take a flaw or some other kind of drawback?
In the case of flaw, which kind of ability should be affected?
I think also other drawback are eligible (for example "Maimed", "Crippled", etc.).
Is this right?

Best regards
Luca

[ceck]

pag. 163
Non-conflict damage box - first paragraph

I don't understand the meaning og the sentence.
If someone would cut my sword-hand, I'd expect to obtain a "free" maimed drawback. If I sacrifice a destiny point probably my enemy change his idea at the last moment, why should I also take a flaw, as you say in the text? And if it is, which kind of flaw?

[ceck]

pag 108
Example box

The green warship 11 points cost is appearently wrong. According to table 6.8 it sould be 7+1 (green) = 8 points.

Luca

edit

Sorry this is already in FAQ

[hedgewizard]

TOPIC: Warfare

What happens when a commander or sub-commander are engaged?

They are placed on the battlefield like normal units; they can relinquish command and jump into the fray as heroes (or equiv), but they must relinquish command to do so - so what happens when an opposing hero or unit engages them?

If they are engaged prior to issuing orders (the first character actions) I would assume they couldn't issue orders in the following phase. What happens if they are engaged during the 2nd phase of character actions? They can't take any actions and so cannot fight back?

[RJS]

Addressed 04/06/09

[BRebel]

p155, Unwieldy.

As written, this attribute applies a penalty to marksmanship tests. I assume for fighting tests made with the relevant weapons, such as pikes and greatswords, this penalty is to fighting?

Thanks for the thoughtful responses to my earlier questions, RJS.

[ceck]

Will you release a free pdf with FAQ and Errata for all who bought the 1st edition printed version?

Luca

[Ajes]

If a houses influence is increased so that its Maximum Status increases (per table 6-5), do the characters of the house (both PCs and NPCs), such as the lord and heirs automatically increase their status, or do they have to buy this increase with XP?

If not, doesnt that allow for characters to have an inappropriately low status for their position?

[BRebel]

Awareness and Notice, Page 58.

During an (active) test to notice something using Awareness, like searching a room for hiding enemies, Notice bonus dice apply in the usual way. What about during passive tests, such as when the character is not actively searching for something? Do these bonus dice add a flat modifier (say,+1 to the test), increase the number of dice for passive Awareness tests to notice something (say, a character had awareness 3, notice 1b, resulting in 16 passive?), or have no effect?

Gotcha, thanks HW, as per page 52.

[Diplomancy]

I appreciate the errata to Brawler III, it is much more clear now. However, I'm afraid that now Brawler III, and by extension, unarmed combatants, are too powerful.

A character with Brawler III will have at least Fighting 5 (Brawling 5B). Assuming a decent Athletics score (relevant because of Brawler II), and that I did my calculations correctly, this character will have better than a 99% chance to get an initial Fighting result of 20 or better.

That will be sufficient to stun any character with Endurance 5 or less, and to grab any character with Athletics of 5 or less. Therefore, this character is likely to both stun and grab any opponent on every hit. As the opponent will always be forced to spend at least one Greater action breaking the stun, it's entirely possible that the opponent will never be able to take any other action over the course of the combat.

Therefore, in a one-on-one fight, a character with Brawler III is among the most effective melee combatants possible. I don't feel this fits the source material very well. Was this intentional?

The Brawler benefits are on page 77.

[hedgewizard]

Awareness and Notice, Page 58.

During an (active) test to notice something using Awareness, like searching a room for hiding enemies, Notice bonus dice apply in the usual way. What about during passive tests, such as when the character is not actively searching for something? Do these bonus dice add a flat modifier (say,+1 to the test), increase the number of dice for passive Awareness tests to notice something (say, a character had awareness 3, notice 1b, resulting in 16 passive?), or have no effect?

You add relevant bonus dice *after* multiplying passive results. So with Awareness 3 and Notice 1b, you have 3x4 +1, or 13.

[Diplomancy]

In mass combat, I'm a little bit unclear about how many actions unattached characters can take during Steps 6 and 8, First and Second Player Actions. Specifically, how many times may a character perform the "Attack Unit" action during each of these steps? Is it 5 times, to represent the 5 normal combat rounds, or is it only one time?

I ask because if the characters are given 5 opportunities to "Attack Unit" per step, highly skilled individual characters present a credible threat even to entire units, even with the +20 bonus to CD.

The rules in question can be found between pages 179 and 181.