D&D 4E List of Potential New Martial Practices

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeh I do get it not as sure how I can hybrid that mentality with how martial practices / rituals currently operate.

The Trance/Sleeping in the saddle ritual/practice would cost resource in the SC when it was advantagous to be aware in the night AND iif in a SC having more hours in the day to work on it would help.

Part of that is the same benefit provided by the alarm ritual.

Yeah, and that brings up some differences and questions. In the 'trad' sort of 'sim' viewpoint the player has the character expend resources to set the Alarm (or whatever) as often as it seems like it MIGHT help, regardless of whatever is going on in the game. Obviously the judgement of when it is likely to be helpful is narratively based (or perhaps gamist or 'reading the DM' but we'll let that aside) however the player may not specifically have goals or stakes laid out. In my approach you'd NEVER worry about something like Alarm unless there was conflict being actively resolved (IE an SC in progress).

There are a few ways to approach this. One might be to simply have the player state that his character is 'setting Alarm according to his judgement' and assess a periodic fee (IE pay some gold for the presumed to be used components when you get to town). Then if it would help in a given situation the GM would give the players an advantage for it in the ongoing SC (or let them have a better setup in a combat that happens, whatever). Otherwise you could simply run a lot of 'man vs environment' type SCs covering most travel that is likely to involve any danger (and not worry about the residue of times that are either safe or just very brief forays, say trip to the next town on an iffy road).

Its a different sort of game, but you can still have similar resource utilization concepts. It just requires framing the action of the game in a certain way.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

@AbdulAlhazred - Not sure why it just occured to me that the paradigm of allowing rituals to not expend their components in a low intensity situation ie outside of a SC (or significantly high skill result situation ) works fine in game world flavor as well. It still requires some of the components but they do not burn up or you can replace them with cheap alternatives etc if you arent pushing it. You can use that speak to the dead ritual and not expend its component to summon your grandma and that is the narative for your learning magic and being cnnected to your family heritage (with a nice history skill) but when you need it for something challenging it takes a high skill result or you expend it when trying to talk to the spirit of the corpse you just found. Admittedlly this ties in to the freedom to reflavor already for instance if you have a perfect sense of direction (is there something that gives this?), you might describe this as being able to ask directions of spirits along your path.

Hmmm I think I want to make a necromancer of some sort... describe many many things interms of the dead and spirits aiding him.

Right, this is another approach that also works. Things are cheap when there's nothing riding on the outcome. I tend to think a mix of approaches can definitely work.

Actually, taking from Wreccan a bit, you can simply call the periods where there isn't conflict 'interludes' and simply have them be times when everything is narrated and any resource expenditure is mostly optional (unless your say restocking your equipment or something, though I kinda like semi-abstract wealth systems in this type of game too).

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah, and that brings up some differences and questions. In the 'trad' sort of 'sim' viewpoint the player has the character expend resources to set the Alarm (or whatever) as often as it seems like it MIGHT help, regardless of whatever is going on in the game. Obviously the judgement of when it is likely to be helpful is narratively based (or perhaps gamist or 'reading the DM' but we'll let that aside) however the player may not specifically have goals or stakes laid out. In my approach you'd NEVER worry about something like Alarm unless there was conflict being actively resolved (IE an SC in progress).

If an alarm only expends the expensive ingredients (those which do the warning part ... ) when it is tripped that is both sim and accomplishes the concept of un-wasted expenses. Similarly the only point when a trance costs you a surge is when you have to yank yourself out of it (or perhaps when you want to push yourself really deep to get much more rest in shorter time).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

If an alarm only expends the expensive ingredients (those which do the warning part ... ) when it is tripped that is both sim and accomplishes the concept of un-waisted expenses. Similarly the only point when a trance costs you a surge is when you have to yank yourself out of it (or perhaps when you want to push yourself really deep to get much more rest in shorter time).

That ALSO works!

 

[Garthanos]

That ALSO works!

Now wondering how many rituals or practives which provide iffy benefits can be adjusted similarly

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Now wondering how many rituals or practives which provide iffy benefits can be adjusted similarly

Yeah, I feel a lot of rewrites coming on...

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah, I feel a lot of rewrites coming on...

Indeed people feeling they were paying for something which might be of no benefit (true or not) has been one of the issues in the beginning.

 

[Garthanos]

There are 17 martial practices in Martial Power 2
and adding this list would provide 44... ie 5 more to go before we hit the same support as rituals had in the players handbook

 

[Garthanos]

I am trying to think of a way to apply that same thinking to pass without a trace.... errrr Track obscurement

perhaps needed is a hunters empathy to know when you are being tracked or someone knows you are tracking them

I am also thinking track obscurement could actually be used to change the message in tracks not just hide them might increase the party/troop size so the enemy might be intimidated or make it seems like animal herd

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I am trying to think of a way to apply that same thinking to pass without a trace.... errrr Track obscurement

perhaps needed is a hunters empathy to know when you are being tracked or someone knows you are tracking them

I am also thinking track obscurement could actually be used to change the message in tracks not just hide them might increase the party/troop size so the enemy might be intimidated or make it seems like animal herd

Yeah, well, how I would do it is you have your basic effect, which is that knowing this practice provides narrative justification for making a Nature check to achieve a success in an SC when obscuring your tracks would be a narratively appropriate means to achieve a success (or some other type of SC-related check, say if you called it a 'secondary skill use' to gain an advantage or whatever). If you're willing to pay the specified price, say one HS, then success is automatic.

So, rituals/practices provide 2 advantages to those who master them. They provide the player with plot power, she can justify doing things and using skills that might not otherwise be possible. Secondly they allow an automatic success in return for paying a price.

Now, there are certainly rituals (in particular, maybe some practices too) that won't easily fit this mold. Something like Enchant Item would be a pretty obvious one. One possibility is to simply use it like above, where you specify a PROCESS for making an item, and then the Enchanting is simply one possible part of that (maybe an unavoidable part, maybe optional) and creating the item is an SC. In that case the 'pay a price to get a success' model works fine, and you can still require a monetary cost (or whatever) as a totally separate necessity of the SC itself.

Still, there may be others where the concept doesn't work so well, but I'm actually having a hard time deciding what those would be. They'd generally be cases where there's something gained permanently from a ritual where using a temporary resource as the cost wouldn't really work out, but you can still require a separate price that is a prerequisite and doesn't relate to the auto-success possibility. Anyway, the auto-success price itself could be monetary or whatever in those cases too.

I think I've reached a point now where I can try a total rewrite (again!) of my ritual rules! hehe.