Fate of the Norns

Hi, I just read the entire book in 3 days and I'm amazed by how interesting this game looks, I have many questions unanswered or that I'm confused about.
I would really need help from a fellow Norn to better understand the game's mecanics

1 - when do you die exactly ? in the guide you end up with 5 runes in the death zone and it doesn't say that you're dead anyways ?
is it equal to your essence ?

2 - if you have runes in your injury/death zone, are they substracted from the amount of runes you can wyrd ? if you have 3 essence
but 3 runes in the injury zone does that mean your wyrd nothing at your turn ?

(edited) 2.5 - if you cast an active power with maintain that's 2 runes used total, and your essence is 2 runes, do you still wyrd 2 runes at the start
of your next turn or are they used until the spell is cancelled ?

2.75 - if somebody (norn or player) wishes to inflict mental damage to hurt the health without removing runes in a specific area ( in play, in hard etc.)
is it possible to have the mental damage specifically hurt the health ? can the PC choose not to remove runes from the targetted area and just
damage the health ?

3 - which level is it recommended to start your characters at ? from the small campaing at the end they start lvl 9, is that a recommended staple ?

4 - how is exp calculated ? In my DND campaing we don't run exp points because it's too long so I have my PCs level up after each arcs which makes
it more interesting to us, is it the same principle in FOTN?

5 - page 151 the afterlife, it says that you draw runes equal to a certain score decided by the quality of your funeral death etc... what are those runes used
for ? it doesn't mention what I do with this draw

6 - the guide tells how to win disir levels but it doesn't say what the disir levels do, are the the levels im supposed to spend to unlock the traits
like troll's blood and the extended skill trees ?

7 - when you level up essence, I understand that you're to win a skill. in which of the 3 skill tables are you supposed to level something ? or do you
level something in all 3 tables with 1 essence ?

8 - I'm trying to figure out the difference between the essence pile and the whole rune pouch at the start of a combat, are you supposed to draw runes
equal to your essence and that's your pile for the whole combat ? meaning you could be unlucky and draw mostly one color, or do you put everything
back in the whole pouch when cleaning up and always using the whole bag ?

9 - when creating a character, you draw runes for your characteristics and the game offers to advantage a certain trait to help the character class, for example
allowing half the runes to be physical for a physical char and then drawing the rest at random. What am I supposed to do with this draw ? is this some kind of
stats I'm supposed to put somewhere in a character sheet ? or are those skills I'm supposed to spread in the skill sheets ? How many do I draw depending on the level
you start the campaing at ?

10 - I watched a youtube video simulating a combat, somebody mentioned weapon expertise or something, how does this work ? is there some kind of
weapon skill exp system somewhere or is this a passive from one of the classes ?

thanks a lot for your time into answering I know it's a lot but I consider those questions vital for me to be able to start a campaing, I don't feel like I could
properly play without those answers.

bests

When all runes are in damage (your dying but not nessarly dead)
when all your runes are in death or drain(Yer dead jym)



when your rune is in damage its no longer accessable to you until you get healing and it goes back into your bag

You always wyrd your destiny, but if you only have 1 rune in your bag you only draw 1 runes even if runes are currrently in maintain

if you take damage and dont have any runes in your bag and have a maintain, you as the damage taker chooses what runes to pay for damage out of your hand, already played runes, or maintained runes

When Mental damage is dealt,
the attacker must choose the victim’s pile: In-Hand, In-Play, or Contingency. The chosen pile is then dealtthe Mental damage first. If no more runes remain in that pile and there is more damage to resolve, then it is applied just as Physical damage is




Level 8 is the lowest recomended, but level 9 is a pretty good too.
Personally I do level 10



Norns decides when you level, so doing it based on arcs makes senses. I personally do Milestone type systeme, so when my players have completed enough parts I give them a level



It says right above the table on page 151
"When their dweller’s body is destroyed through immolation or decomposition, the player should draw 1 rune.The Norn draws a number of runes based on the type of life the dweller lived and the burial they received. If there is an exact rune match between the player and the Norn, the dweller is taken up into the heavens"

then depending on the quality of their funeral or deeds they get more draws



Basically each feature of the game that has the disir recquirement is unlocked based on their desir level. (like troll blood and the extended skill trees) and its "paid" during character creation.

for example your Disir level 5 and you want to play an Godi that requires disir 3, and you want to unlock the outter board for another 1? thats 4 of 5 of your desir levels paid for this character.

It helps keeping the learning curve for more complex mechanics and power levels so that players can go in weird and different directions



?

You get one active, one passive, and one skill per rune in essence



Your bag as a player should only have your runes you bound to your character board inside it, and you choose if you want more phyical, mental or spritual runes when deciding what rune is bound so said active power.

when cleaning up you put all runes in play and in your hand back into your bag, minus your void rune that returns to the void, then during they Wyrd phase you draw (wyrd) runes equal to your destiny and put your void back into your hand (skuld)



The player decides what runes are bound to their board,
they start at the center, and like a reverse bingo they decide what power they want, then based on their essence they branch out. for each rune they put into their bag (aka into essence) they get an active, passive, and skill.

You pay 1 level per rune in essence(put into their bag)
you pay 2 levels in Destiny (aka draw/Wryd)



Its a passive or skill from one of the Archtypes (cant remember but if you link me the vid/ tell me the arch type I can confirm)

Let me know if you have any other questions, love helping out new norns where I can! =D

_________________
Druids are Balanced - Lennard

1. You die if all runes except your void are in death or drain, which is necessarily tied to your essence.

2. That’s right, if every single one of your runes is in stun or lower, you’re either dead or unconscious. You’re dead if everything’s in death or drain, unconscious if at least 1 rune is in wounds or stun.

2.5 Yeah, you can’t draw runes you can’t access. However, you can dispel that maintained power as a free action, so you can get them back whenever.

2.75 Not that I know of, but there’s no reason why that can’t be a house rule. RGS at my table looks totally different from the official rules.

3. 8-11 is recommended. I started at 10.

4. Rules as written, you auto level for quest completion, with no actual XP involved, which is so little work on your part lol. However, if your table is anything like mine, your players will probably feel they deserve a reward for things like combat, exceptional role play, creative solutions, or plot advancement, so I’ve instituted an XP system for my game. They level up a little faster than I think they should, but it’s also important that your players be happy and comfortable, so what the hell. Just means I can throw tougher stuff at them. I usually gauge roleplay, plot, and creative solution XP on a case by case basis, and calculate kill XP as (monster level / 200 + base level/10) * number of monsters of that type. I was originally gonna leave off the base level part, but this allows an extra reward for especially powerful enemies like krakens, ettins, catacomb dragons, and immortals. And I’m a nice guy so I let them keep the level up for quest completion.

5. The dead person draws their runes based on what happens at the funeral. Draw from a full bag of 24. There’s a handy table somewhere in the CRB for the modifiers on the draw.When the funeral is all over, either put the runes back in the bag or grab a second bag. The Norn then draws the same number of runes. If any 1 rune matches, the PC goes to the heavens.

6. Yeah those disir levels are for troll blood, fylgia, einherjar, son of Muspel. And if you’ve got lords of the ash, there are a bunch of extra options in there that are way awesome.

7.One essence gets you all 3 - 1 active, 1 passive, 1 skill. And your boards don’t need to be laid out the same as one another. This game has nigh infinite amounts of customizability for your characters, something that both I and my players love.

8. Essence and the pouch are the same thing. You draw equal to your destiny, and yes that means you could get super unlucky and get no powers that are useful for what you want to do. However, you redraw each round. However, my players felt this was super restrictive, so I’ve started saying that in combat they can draw all UNDAMAGED runes each round, but you can only use as many as you have destiny for. So if you have essence 5, destiny 4, the first round of combat, draw all 5 runes + your void, but you can only use up to 4 runes + your void.

9. Your 2 primary stats are essence and destiny. Your essence is the runes in your bag, and each rune costs 1 level. Destiny is the number of runes you draw at a time, and costs 2 levels. If you’re using the standard character sheet you can print out, then draw the runes that correspond to each power in a colored pencil and you’ll be able to see how many runes of each color you have. A lot of us quickly end up making our own character sheets or borrowing someone else’s template since the official ones are too small for anything except for very low level characters. If you want to write down how many runes you have for each trait, go for it. Not that difficult to count the runes in your bag or the colored runes written on your sheet. Also doesn’t come up anywhere near as often as “what’s your strength score,” or similar questions in dnd.

10. No clue what the weapon expertise is. Maybe the Stalo’s attuned weapon?