Fate of the Norns

Good info @Alkas
We were under the impression that all Alka tokens are going away at the end of a non-maintained round, tool. Nice to know that they stay permanently until consumed or until combat is finished.
Now you can finally use all those "$&§$ Alkas against their caster ! >:-)

Here are questions that came up from our major combat last weekend.

I'm used to heavy RP, low-combat (or heavily abstracted combat) RPGs. This is the first game with crunchy combat that's actually made me want to play it for a long time. (This and Legends of the Wulin are the only ones in recent memory.) So, cheers to that

A few things others have said:
I totally misunderstood Alkas. Once we understood those, they made a lot more sense, fictionally and rules-wise.

I think someone said to have about 1 enemy per player if they're at level or above. I had an NPC with twice their level and he did incredibly well against one, pretty well when 2 got involved, and demolished when 3 got there. The Seithkona(sp?) demolished him with conditions, which screwed up him up pretty badly.

Questions:

Drain: When Spritual damage happens, do you first start with anything in the Death pile?
Pounce and Brutalize: Are they supposed to inflict those every round or just the first round of a battle?

Happy to hear you liked the combat, too. Our group is focusing heavily on RP, using rules just when necessary, too. Kinda why we really dig the slick simplicity of the non-combat skill checks. But still we really, really enjoy the "tabletop mode" the combat system offers =)

@questions:
Drain: Yes, as those are the lowest runes on the sheet. Spiritual damage = extremely dangerous if you already got some physical damage.
Pounce/Brutalize: Every round, if an attack is made that round. Those are quite strong, especially at low levels (=lower Destiny), as you basically get a "free" rune each round. "Free" = you could play a rune to add a weapon meta to get a similar effect - or the opponent can play a rune each upkeep to remove the effect, netting you 1 rune advantage, too.
The only downside might be the fact that you have to use it on the first attack, so those abilities get a bit less effective at higher levels (more destiny), when you do 2-3 attack actions per round.

Here's some entries for the FAQ:

How does Amplify work with Alkas?
An Amplify meta doubles the numbers of tokens you can lay out. It does not increase the intensity of the conditions by RAW. Some folks house rule that it can do number of tokens or increase intensity, but not both.

How does Mental Damage work?

• The attacker chooses a pile from In-Hand, In-Play, or Contingency
• The defender can still defend as normal
• The defender chooses runes to remove from the pile chosen by the attacker. Each rune accounts for 1 point of damage and is moved directly from that pile into Essence.
• If there are no more runes to remove from that pile, and there is still more damage to resolve, resolve it exactly as physical damage (lowest rune through the damage track

How does Keen Aptitude work?
Keen Aptitude, when chosen (normally at denizen creation time), becomes another passive that the denizen already has. It then stacks as per normal rules. It allows for denizen boards to be flexible, allowing for the Norn to customize denizens a little more.

Can you dual wield fists?
No, you can't.

What's the difference between Arcane Reach and Aura of Influence?
Arcane Reach only affects spells and boosts touch range by 10' or the reach of the weapon- whichever is longer. Range metas get boosted by an extra 5'.
Aura of Influence adds to any power that uses the word "adjacent" for range (or area of effect). The word "adjacent" gets redefined to 10'.

How do Rune Enchantments (passives) work?
You can inscribe the rune in question, and power ONE instance of it. When you inscribe it again, the old one goes away. If one gets Keen Aptitude (for instance, off the Troll-Blood board), you can power another instance of the rune, but are still restricted by the 25' rule.

Raleel you rock, thanks for summarizing those threads into a concise conclusion. I will look at the book verbiage and see how we can clarify it for the next printing.

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More entries to the FAQ thread

Contingencies and Interrupts

• Contingencies can happen during a move. For example, you can set a contingency for when someone enters a hex or leaves a hex. This does allow for Opportunity Attacks like you might be used to, but has a cost (i.e. must play a rune)
• {Interrupts} that have Defend Actions and defense bonuses (i.e. Armored Reflexes) can be played during an Attack action and apply to that Attack action.
• It has been suggested that for your sanity that {Interrupts} that don't have Defend actions in them not be allowed to interrupt a Source. Chant of Skuld, for example, allows a Wyrd. This can cause a cascading effect and bog down combat.