andrew wrote:
Raleel, THANK YOU for taking the time to catalogue your feedback so meticulously. This is a treasure trove of intel for me. I especially need to hear from groups which are "self taught", rather than learning hands on at a convention.
no sweat. really felt that i needed to think about it for a while and put it out there.
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Agreed on all points! One of the things we wanted to do with Vanagard (this project may be pushed to 2016) is to produce inexpensive punch out cardboard runes which could sell for under $5. Since it's pushed, I think this will be a very good stretch goal for The Illuminated Edda.
I plan to release a mini card deck of runes for $10 (current rune deck is $15 I think) and wood is $25 and metal is $40.
this will be a good thing. a sheet or two of those would make quite a difference in the entry point.
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Do you feel that a Monster Manual would help the Norn immensely? On a scale of 1 to 10?
maybe an 8. I LIKE the boards... don't get me wrong. but it's very intensive. It's hard to store and put together, etc. It's fun, but not good for Norn prep time. I guess ultimately, dwellers just don't need the same power sets as players. You can do quite well with a small set of easily flavored powers and a relatively small set of metas.
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How about those power cards?
as a norn, probably like a 6. as a player I think it's higher. This is due to in small part because I read everything and I'm a sponge for it. Some of my players are not so much. It's time consuming to reference your powers through a couple of books. Much easier to have your set right there and understand them.
I also am somewhat concerned about the player being focused on "this is all I can do" when he looks at the cards, but I think the out of combat effects help that a bit.
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Also if a player feels like they are overwhelmed with the number of abilities at starter levels (8-12), have they tried focusing on using runes for generic/cinematic actions instead of worrying about powers? How has that worked? If they didn't, why not?
so, this is a thing that I've been fighting in relatively high crunch systems for a while now. If you have a bunch of things defined, the tendency with a particular set of people (maybe of them gamers) is for that to be the full scope of all your options. In effect, turning the RPG into a board game. So they don't do generic actions because they don't think of them as something they can do to do random X that is not listed on your sheet.
I tried to encourage it, but it's hard to encourage. it. It also doesn't help that generic actions kind of rely on you trusting your GM is going to rule the way you think it will work. that doesn't work as well as I'd like. We had a discussion at our game last friday specifically about this. It's not a small problem.
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I'd be very curious how your more veteran players fare with a longer play window.
yea, i'm forming a plan with that. we have some other things already planned, so we'll see.
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it is somewhat game slowing if you have Mental damage. The player can't decide which pile he's going to target without you passing over the iPad.
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Actually it's not meant to be open, players shouldn't see your playmats. They should remain hidden behind your Norn screen or on your iPad. they should make their best guesses based on info like "denizen X has a maintained spellsong and has just drawn his runes and hasn't played yet".
that will give many howls from my players, and I don't think I blame them on that. that is quite lopsided towards the Norn, in a place where I can already be pretty lopsided if I desire

I posted it to some of my players - one immediately responded back with his displeasure, feeling the entire attack would be wasted. I reminded him that it still did damage, and was still mental. but i get where they are coming from.
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Online game
If you guys setup a roll20, and want me to run a 1-shot of Fafnir to compare to your home game, I would be happy to do that.

thanks! I may take you up on that.