As a group, how did you approach the distribution of tests? That was an issue in the session I GMed on the weekend.Well, that went badly.My outcast failed every single roll all session except one combat roll. Got injured by skeletons, failed to recover (on a huge pile of rolled dice), and then thanks to a failed heal check I had to grit my teeth. Wheeee!
Torchbearer 2nd ed: first impressions
- Thread starter pemerton
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Over the course of the session? Or in camp?
I was thinking in the Adventure Phase.
Turns are a group resource, and - as a general rule - each test costs a turn. This means that making a test consumes a group resource for what is (at least in part) an individual benefit, namely, getting an advancement tick against a skill/ability. Which is a significant difference from Burning Wheel and RuneQuest (the two other systems I'm familiar with where advancement is based on making tests/rolls).
This means that action declarations take on an extra degree of significance.
In the session I GMed, the distribution of checks was not as equal as it might have been, and at least one of the players noticed.
We had a pretty solid coop for rolls IMO. Lots of help dice and tactical decisions that suited our strengths. Just terrible rolling.
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We had plenty of cooperation, and a moderate degree of tactical decision-making. It's the actual distribution of who tests that I'm referring to.
In BW a helping character gets an advancement tick, but in Torchbearer that has to be paid for (with Fate). So who makes the roll becomes a bigger deal.
The books acknowledge this (if a little obliquely) in the discussion of spotlight sharing early on in the Scholar's Guide. But it wasn't until actual play that I got to see how it really matters.
@Fenris-77, I think I'm failing in my communication.
In the session I GMed last weekend, one of the players rolled 5 of the dozen or so (non-conflict) test that were made. That means that that player's PC gets considerably more advancement checks than the others. But the other players suffer the advances on the grind that result from the making of those tests.
In BW, by way of comparison, declaring an action takes up time at the table - and that's a group resource. But it doesn't generate an automatic mechanical consequence for every other player's position in the way that taking a turn does in Torchbearer.
This aspect of Torchbearer introduces a dimension into the social dynamic of who declares actions that is new, or at least is new for me. I was wondering how it worked out in your group.
In the session I GMed last weekend, one of the players rolled 5 of the dozen or so (non-conflict) test that were made. That means that that player's PC gets considerably more advancement checks than the others. But the other players suffer the advances on the grind that result from the making of those tests.
In BW, by way of comparison, declaring an action takes up time at the table - and that's a group resource. But it doesn't generate an automatic mechanical consequence for every other player's position in the way that taking a turn does in Torchbearer.
This aspect of Torchbearer introduces a dimension into the social dynamic of who declares actions that is new, or at least is new for me. I was wondering how it worked out in your group.
We did a pretty good job sharing the actions around, at least that's my memory of the session. I don't we made poor decisions as players, it was just a bad rolling night. Like our poor thief rolling 8 dice to resist some mind control effect and getting zero successes. 
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
In our first session (finally) things seemed moderately straightforward. However, I agree that the whole "every time someone does something it ticks off the grind" is pretty limiting. There is only the party and its action economy, there's no notion at all really of characters 'doing their thing'. Nor can you really just 'poke around' or carry out some tentative action very easily, or at least it comes down to whether or not the GM is going to jump in and frame you into a formal obstacle or not. My character, for instance, kind of wanted to try to loot the ruined shrine, as it appeared to have some treasure. I decided it was too dangerous after looking at what dice I would have a chance to roll. Maybe I could have proposed a less hazardous course, but with the grind in mind I wasn't that tempted to burn one of the party's limited number of turns on something marginal.
OTOH I was PERFECTLY happy to go for it when we ran into the tentacled horror (whatever that monster was). We had some pretty solid luck, and seemed to be playing within our overall competencies on that one, and I imagined that there was at least a decent chance of getting something out of it, though honestly the upshot of the whole thing seems to be I lost my cloak and got a hat, lol.
I'm not sure we accomplished much on the whole trip, but I guess we'll see after next time when we play out extricating ourselves from the ruins and getting home. I managed to earn one check, at the cost of a point of Persona. Nature is definitely the really heavy weight tool here, overall! As Nik noted, we need to get better at exploiting chances to get checks and such, but at least our play didn't seem too inept! lol.
OTOH I was PERFECTLY happy to go for it when we ran into the tentacled horror (whatever that monster was). We had some pretty solid luck, and seemed to be playing within our overall competencies on that one, and I imagined that there was at least a decent chance of getting something out of it, though honestly the upshot of the whole thing seems to be I lost my cloak and got a hat, lol.
I'm not sure we accomplished much on the whole trip, but I guess we'll see after next time when we play out extricating ourselves from the ruins and getting home. I managed to earn one check, at the cost of a point of Persona. Nature is definitely the really heavy weight tool here, overall! As Nik noted, we need to get better at exploiting chances to get checks and such, but at least our play didn't seem too inept! lol.
Yes, these tough decisions are clearly part of the game design's intent. It "should" have been such an easy call to snoop around the ruined shrine, but with a character Afraid and unable to help, and another without the skill needed, you just didn't have the dice to be confident in pulling it off. (A shame too, I did want to interact in some way with that shrine. Maybe we should have left an offering anyhow! From our copious treasure hoard....)
Yes, our party is decently built for fights (which don't give the option of passing, like the shrine did). A warm hat is a heck of a reward for the risk, though, isn't it?
From other session recaps I've read, we did all right. Apart from getting checks when we could have; that's gonna bite us hard unless we manage to get a few before we camp, or get some better loot before returning to town.
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