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Numenera: Third Time Wasn't the Charm
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<blockquote data-quote="GrahamWills" data-source="post: 7628159" data-attributes="member: 75787"><p>In Numenéra, fighting is not the 50%-of-the-session activity it tends to be in D&D. Echoing Aldarc, the system isn’t designed to do that. I’ve run a campaign for a few years now, and I found that players would come to me asking to swap combat abilities for non-combatant ones. It’s not that combat doesn’t happen, but it tends to be much less mechanical than D&D, as well as rarer. I’ve had a nano place an enemy in stasis, another attach a null-gravity cypher to them and the third launch them into orbit. Players lure enemies into traps and hazards — the environment is much more a part of the game. In some ways combat has an AD&D feel — you get your one attack power, but if that’s what you’re using, you probably aren’t doing the best thing — look for the non-swing-sword maneuver.</p><p></p><p>in D&D the big climax is typically a fight. I think I can say that it has never been so in the game I’ve run, across maybe ten or so arcs. Players have, as a cap to the arc</p><p></p><p>- persuaded enough people to own their own house</p><p>- activated the numenéra in the cellar and launched their house onto a distant water planet</p><p>- escaped the water planet through a gate to the moon</p><p>- temporarily fixed the moon’s time travel issues well enough to get the space port working</p><p>- ejected the rogue intelligence from their ship into the sun</p><p>- lured the big bad nasty thing into a trap</p><p>- persuaded an immortal that the immortal was just depressed and needed a change of lifestyle</p><p>- understood the giant creatures’ house/school/spaceship well enough to switch off their power source and free their ship.</p><p></p><p>Combats were generally a minor feature, more of a set-up than a finale. They could be very nasty, and take entire sessions occasionally (a big brawl in a society ball with numenéra running amok) but there was always something going on in addition to combat. All the way to end-tier, I have characters being played who still only really use one combat attack power, but they feel like a fallback; something to do if you haven’t a better idea, or if you’re a bit tired or on a bathroom break. </p><p></p><p>Oh wait; there was one big bad that was eliminated at the end of an arc; I forgot because the fight was a bit of anti-climax; one player managed to apply a cypher to him that adapted him to life deep underwater, and he failed to realize what had happened (no water on his planet deeper than a few meters) and teleported himself into space as a last-ditch effort to live, believing it might be a space adaptation cypher. Dead if he stayed anyway, so not a terrible guess. People did do some standard attacks against his minions, but I don’t think against him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GrahamWills, post: 7628159, member: 75787"] In Numenéra, fighting is not the 50%-of-the-session activity it tends to be in D&D. Echoing Aldarc, the system isn’t designed to do that. I’ve run a campaign for a few years now, and I found that players would come to me asking to swap combat abilities for non-combatant ones. It’s not that combat doesn’t happen, but it tends to be much less mechanical than D&D, as well as rarer. I’ve had a nano place an enemy in stasis, another attach a null-gravity cypher to them and the third launch them into orbit. Players lure enemies into traps and hazards — the environment is much more a part of the game. In some ways combat has an AD&D feel — you get your one attack power, but if that’s what you’re using, you probably aren’t doing the best thing — look for the non-swing-sword maneuver. in D&D the big climax is typically a fight. I think I can say that it has never been so in the game I’ve run, across maybe ten or so arcs. Players have, as a cap to the arc - persuaded enough people to own their own house - activated the numenéra in the cellar and launched their house onto a distant water planet - escaped the water planet through a gate to the moon - temporarily fixed the moon’s time travel issues well enough to get the space port working - ejected the rogue intelligence from their ship into the sun - lured the big bad nasty thing into a trap - persuaded an immortal that the immortal was just depressed and needed a change of lifestyle - understood the giant creatures’ house/school/spaceship well enough to switch off their power source and free their ship. Combats were generally a minor feature, more of a set-up than a finale. They could be very nasty, and take entire sessions occasionally (a big brawl in a society ball with numenéra running amok) but there was always something going on in addition to combat. All the way to end-tier, I have characters being played who still only really use one combat attack power, but they feel like a fallback; something to do if you haven’t a better idea, or if you’re a bit tired or on a bathroom break. Oh wait; there was one big bad that was eliminated at the end of an arc; I forgot because the fight was a bit of anti-climax; one player managed to apply a cypher to him that adapted him to life deep underwater, and he failed to realize what had happened (no water on his planet deeper than a few meters) and teleported himself into space as a last-ditch effort to live, believing it might be a space adaptation cypher. Dead if he stayed anyway, so not a terrible guess. People did do some standard attacks against his minions, but I don’t think against him. [/QUOTE]
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