Fate of the Norns

Am I correct that, because of powers and metas, you cannot expect crunch levels to be at parity with each other? I move and attack with crunch 0 and I move and power attack are different beasts.

Yes and no and maybe, it really depends on context. You can say I'm on a balcony and need to get down, so I move to the stairs by playing a rune, then move again down the stairs playing another rune. You can also use a power called Dash that maybe gives you a move action +2 move bonus. Is it enough? How about if you used a cinematic action to jump on a rope and slide down? That was one rune and more efficient than any of the other two? If you don't think out of the box, then yes, cinematic actions are just 25% worse than powers in terms of QR points used to build the action. But your great-sword may deal DF 6 with a cinematic action and Power attack adds another 2 for a total of 8, but the guy cutting the rope of the chandelier and dropping it on the head of the enemy for 14 just did more damage. Encourage and reward players for cinematic actions and you'll get them played more often.

But Powers are there to differentiate the hero from the commoner. A hero like Grettir the Strong will have Power Attack with metas, while the peasant will have a cinematic action attack swing for regular DF.

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Yes, I’m not as concerned with encouraging cinematic play as I am with using crunch 0 as the norn to reduce some overhead. 25% less is a good marker, and would make crunch 0 suitable for some fights.

This has largely been my issue with running FOTN. I have 6 players at my table on a good night, and running multiple combatants or running high Essence and destiny creatures can become quite complex when dealing with that many. As I say to my players, “you all have one, and that’s fun. I have 6, and that’s much harder”. I’m pretty fast, but the last time we played it was clear I was under a lot more pressure than they were.

So, I’m considering options to allow them the rune board (they love it, and frankly, as a player, I love it too) and take some burden off me so I feel more inclined to run it. The new creatures book helps (it is very close mechanically to what I came up with for making denizens easier) but looking to take it a step further.

Have you explored any “only players draw” mechanics like a Cypher or some flavors of Cortex? I’ve been noodling around the idea.

Ahhhh now I see what you're getting at: Cinematic as the Norn! Yeah, I almost always fall back on Cinematic for denizens, it keeps things quick and less predictable for players. I reserve the rune colour lookups for the "signature" powers of the creatures, making the mental recall much easier. That's why Creatures from Fairy-Tale and Myth doesn't have powers for *every* Essence rune, but rather every colour and enough to have a signature combat style. I'm glad that the new book is getting you closer to that zero-prep we talked about years ago.

War of Shadow has a auto-reactive system for denizens and the environment since it's designed with GM-less play in mind (along with traditional GM play rules as well). So perhaps that rules-set is what you'll be looking for. I've started posting about it on my Patreon since I aim to finish the single player experience first, and my top-tier Patreons will help test it to completion.

Ragnarok won't have that since the RGS system will remain in the traditional model for the foseeable future. War of Shadow will be its own game and game system, with an obvious port of the lore and content to Ragnarok for the coming of the 3rd age.

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Thanks. Sometime a few years back I realized that the creatures didn’t really have things in the same way and did the colors as a natural course. My own write ups look like the individual ranks of yours, perhaps with a little more simplification.