Few simple questions

[ItsDan]

In Combat when it says Bonus Actions can be provided by spending a luck die, does this simply mean additional actions, e.g. in addition to the 2 a human usually gets, or should I be looking for distinct language (as in 5th ed D&D) stating something is performed as a bonus action?

As I look into running this for a small group, likely using Death on Ascalon, I'm curious about the logistics of running combat. If 5 players are facing 5 enemies, it seems like for each enemy I need to track hit points, status on each of the status tracks, and how many rounds since they moved at least 10 feet to negate the pinned down effect. That seems like a lot, especially that last one. And since the rules seem to suggest making NPCs using normal character creation rules, should they each have a LUC pool too?

 

[Morrus]

Bonus actions is just the normal usage of the word; it's not a game term. So yep, you just get another action.

Status tracks etc. don't come up all that much. You might find one bad guy has a status, but you won't be tracking them for everybody.

For pinned down, just pass the buck onto the players trying to benefit from it. Let them track who they're pinning down!

It's up to you if you want to give NPCs LUCK. They don't need much as theirs usually only has to last one encounter, not a full day.

 

[ItsDan]

Gotcha, I think it being bolded threw me off, looks like a game term. I didn't spot a limitation on number of additional actions you could 'buy', is that only limited by dice in your LUC pool?

Trust the players to tell me if they get a bonus to attack an NPC I'm running.... it's a bold strategy for sure. I guess the only reason I don't think that would work well is because, at least by my reading, they don't need to be attacking that NPC to get the bonus. It seems to read that by not moving the target is essentially 'drawing fire', so the NPC they're ignoring entirely might still be collecting a bonus right, unless they're actively AGI v INT 'hiding'?

 

[Morrus]

Gotcha, I think it being bolded threw me off, looks like a game term. I didn't spot a limitation on number of additional actions you could 'buy', is that only limited by dice in your LUC pool?

Uses of LUC are described on page 144. That use says "Gain one bonus action per turn by spending a LUC die. This can only happen during a character's own turn."

In the combat section on page 148 it says "Bonus actions can be provided by spending a LUCK die. Only one LUCK die can be spent by a character in this way per turn."

So yes, one per turn.

Trust the players to tell me if they get a bonus to attack an NPC I'm running.... it's a bold strategy for sure. I guess the only reason I don't think that would work well is because, at least by my reading, they don't need to be attacking that NPC to get the bonus. It seems to read that by not moving the target is essentially 'drawing fire', so the NPC they're ignoring entirely might still be collecting a bonus right, unless they're actively AGI v INT 'hiding'?

Pinning someone down is an active thing after all - the attack is doing it, not the defender. So the attacker needs to keep track of it.

As intended, the attacker has to actually be shooting at the target to claim the bonus. You don't continue generating +1d6 all day while you sit in the office waiting for the bad guy to turn up at 5pm and claim +5000d6 because you've been sitting there for 5000 rounds. I can see how the phrasing isn't 100% clear there.

 

[ItsDan]

Total brain fart on the first one, I'm guessing at some point I'm going to remember where my actual confusion was, since yeah that's quite clear.

But yeah on pinning down there's nothing about it only applying to active attackers. The way you clarified it here makes way more sense, but yeah as written it's from the perspective of the defender, I suspect written from the perspective of the attacker it would be more clear. Would it be fair then to assume if an attacker does not make at least one attack against that target for a round that the pinning bonus would also reset to 0 (or be reduced?). What if PC1 is pinning down NPC1 for a round or two and then PC2 starts firing at the same target a few rounds in, would they track their pinning bonus individually or would it be cumulative (I could see obth arguments)?

I'm not sure the tactics are right in that scenario, I guess one player could go into overwatch and the other could take potshot trying to get a lucky hit or force the target into the open, but nonetheless many players might opt for "I shoot it, is it dead? I shoot it again".

Also it's quite awesome getting to throw questions at the designer and get such quick responses! I missed the kickstarter for this entirely and just found it a month or so ago but definitely excited to try it out once I get my head around it.

 

[Morrus]

As intended, it's per attacker. Each attacker will have his own bonuses vs. a given target. If a new attacker joins in, they start at +0d6. If the target moves, everyone gets reset.

 

[ItsDan]

And would they need to attempt at least one attack on a target to maintain the bonus each round?

 

[Morrus]

Yeah.