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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9516883" data-attributes="member: 42582">Right. So here is a brief extract of the actual play report of my most recent Torchbearer 2e session:The test being performed is a search of a Dwarf-built stone structure, by Telemere the Elf.Golin the Dwarf declines to help (at the table, the player is confident Telemere will fail and doesn't want to pick up any more conditions; in the fiction because he thinks that Elves need grounding in reality, in this case in the reality that there is nothing more to be found).So the fictional situation is that Telemere and Fea-bella are poking around at the base of the structure, while - as I confirmed with Golin's player, but in a pretty cursory fashion - Golin is looking out from atop the structure. This then provides the set-up for the twist consequent on the failure: Golin sees the priates sailing down the river towards them!Of course there's no in-fiction causal connection between Telemere's search and pirates turning up, other than the loosest one possible: the search involves hanging around by this place on the river, creating time for the pirates to get there.But the pirates are thematically highly salient - Telemere had earlier been taken prisoner by them; the other PCs had bargained with them as part of brining them into a relationship with Lareth and his cult; when the PCs had taken a recent town phase in Nulb, they had to sleep on the streets because all the accommodations were full of pirates; and Telemere had picked up some gossip at the Nulb docks that the pirates were angry at some Dwarf called &quot;Golin the Beardless&quot; a rumour-mill's combination of the names of (i) the PC Golin and (ii) a pirate-associated NPC Fori the Beardless.As you've been posting, this sort of GM decision-making, unmediated by random encounter checks, might be out-of-bounds for typical &quot;trad&quot; play. But it's of the essence of Torchbearer! It's how the GM makes the game go!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9516883, member: 42582"] Right. So here is a brief extract of the actual play report of my most recent Torchbearer 2e session: The test being performed is a search of a Dwarf-built stone structure, by Telemere the Elf. Golin the Dwarf declines to help (at the table, the player is confident Telemere will fail and doesn't want to pick up any more conditions; in the fiction because he thinks that Elves need grounding in reality, in this case in the reality that there is nothing more to be found). So the fictional situation is that Telemere and Fea-bella are poking around at the base of the structure, while - as I confirmed with Golin's player, but in a pretty cursory fashion - Golin is looking out from atop the structure. This then provides the set-up for the twist consequent on the failure: Golin sees the priates sailing down the river towards them! Of course there's no in-fiction [I]causal[/I] connection between Telemere's search and pirates turning up, other than the loosest one possible: the search involves hanging around by this place on the river, creating time for the pirates to get there. But the pirates are [I]thematically[/I] highly salient - Telemere had earlier been taken prisoner by them; the other PCs had bargained with them as part of brining them into a relationship with Lareth and his cult; when the PCs had taken a recent town phase in Nulb, they had to sleep on the streets because all the accommodations were full of pirates; and Telemere had picked up some gossip at the Nulb docks that the pirates were angry at some Dwarf called "Golin the Beardless" a rumour-mill's combination of the names of (i) the PC Golin and (ii) a pirate-associated NPC Fori the Beardless. As you've been posting, this sort of GM decision-making, unmediated by random encounter checks, might be out-of-bounds for typical "trad" play. But it's of the essence of Torchbearer! It's how the GM makes the game go! [/QUOTE]

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