Observations From Online Game

[Typhon]

When we started playing FC, keeping track of all the abilities IS a chore. No doubt about it. Best way to deal with it, since you havee the PDF, just copy/paste all their abilities into word and email it to the player. He can print it off and have it in front of him for easy access. I, also, printed off all the misc actions you can do. At 4th level it was like 5 pages long lol with decent sized font (oh and I blurbed the skills, as well).
It's hard to remember everything in a new system. The printed info makes it a lot easier.

[mathey]

Yeah, I may end up doing a bit of PDF cut-and-pastin' for my tabletop players as we sort out our planned Fantasy Craft game. I just want to do it in a way that doesn't hit them in the face with massive walls of text - they are the very definition of players who suffer from Option Paralysis. May only give my Mage player the spells she can current cast.

[Gentry]

I am running my kids' first RPG campaign, and my 10-year old, bless him, created a Mage (I'm so proud). We cut and pasted the spells he can cast (not the ones he knows, just the 6 or 7 lvl-0s he can USE right now) onto individual index cards, and he loves it. I totally encourage this activity for anyone who's new to the game as a way to keep walls of text away but still give players access to information on how their stuff works.

[Psion]

I am running my kids' first RPG campaign, and my 10-year old, bless him, created a Mage (I'm so proud).

My then-8 year old made a mage too, and really dug into making her spell list.

[Morfedel]

Thanks for the responses, guys!

Can't reply to each comment individually, but:

I agree; given more time to get familiar with their character sheets, the players probably would have found more occasions or excuses to test out their unique abilities. I would probably have also had more chances to encourage them to try specific ones out. In reviewing their stats, for example, I notice that the Assassin had one of those "at least 21" abilities with Blend, something I overlooked in the session he played in. I could have probably mentioned that when they were scoping out their target, and it might have made my later annoyance/confusion with how to use that skill less of a hassle.

And, speaking of that skill, I think you've all helped me sort out how to think about it and the other related skills. I think I agree that Blend isn't quite passive - not in the same way Notice seems to be. Both could probably be kind of instinctive, but there's a suggestion of conscious adaptation and adjustment to Blend. Notice is just your "average" alertness, sort of like Passive Perception in 4th Edition - only with the chance to get criticals. Out of curiosity, how often do you roll for your players Notice/Blend (assuming you're a GM)? I found myself wanting to roll for it every time they moved or did any sort of action, but that might have been too much.

As for spell lists - I think its the need to reference the specifics of each individual spell that annoyed me, more so than the general Spellcasting rules. I don't see myself memorizing their effects and I usually prefer to have all the necessary info for running an NPC right there in front of me - especially if the scene they appear in is meant to be dramatic and pacey. I think next time around I'll pare down the spell list for bad guys and try to note the basics with their qualities etc. They're going to be a little less versatile but I think having more than two or three special attacks is a case of diminishing returns - particularly if/when your PCs score critical hits.

I'm also looking forward to Spellbound's options for tweaking magic. The campaign qualities in the core rules seem to offer some interesting variety, but even with the use of spell points I find myself wishing FC hadn't leaned so hard on 3.5's magic system. I get that its a familiar starting point, but the assumptions behind old school D&D magic don't really thrill me.

The Assassin player here. I can't believe I forgot to be present for the second session, sigh...

Anyway, yeah, I forgot the blend bonus for the assassin too. It was a lot of stuff to take in for a first game. Also, though, reading blend, it says:

This skill is used to subconsciously avoid detection — it comes
into play whenever it’s important to know whether observers see,
hear, or otherwise sense a character who isn’t intentionally trying
to escape discovery. For this reason, Blend is commonly used
when the Game Master, rather than the player, initiates such a
skill check. Frequently, the GM will make Stealth checks without
the player’s knowledge.

So, it actually SAYS it's passive, essentially. Subconsciously avoid detection. So, those above who said that it's not passive and it's a james bond skill of blending in to a crowd... well, if that's how you interpret it, that's cool, but that's contrary to what it says in the rulebook.

In fact, reading the errata, it reinforces this: that blend IS intended as a passive skill.

And that was the problem. Due to how I built my character, he ended up with a better blend than sneak; and Assassins have a higher blend ability due to their class ability Hand of Death they are even better at it.

Which is just weird. Assassins are better at subconsciously avoid being detected. I'd think they would be much more concerned with wanting to consciously avoid being detected.


James / Morfedel

[Nova]

As I've said before, the Fantasy Craft assassin is not the "backstab from the shadows" kind. Active sneaking is what burglars do.

The Assassin is a partly social class. You use blend because you're NOT trying to go about undetected. You're mingling, mixing in with the crowd, or being an unassuming servant, or just plain looking like you belong where you are right now. This is either a natural talent or something learned from a lot of experience. No "hide in shadows" attempts or anything of the sort. You are where you are, and there's nothing suspicious about it at all.

As far as the watch captain trying to figure out "whodunit", a good blend means you were just one of the many unimportant guests at that big social function, or one of the many faceless, unimportant visitors in that building at the time, and thus in no way matter at all.

Get a courtier's help, or pay a bit of rep, and not only did you belong there, you were actually invited. You shook your victim's hand perhaps. You made small-talk. you found out a few things about his friends and enemies. You left on nice happy terms, the victim entirely unaware of the lethal toxins spreading through their bloodstream, or of the even more venomous words planted in someone's ears.

The assassin doesn't use facepaint. The assassin just "seemed like such a nice person, its unthinkable THEY would do something like that. it must have been that ork. He'd been grumbling about his employer for a while now and look how gruesome that body was".

I can't stop having fun with that class' abilities. Completely destructive, and not even combat-centric.

[ArawnNox]

Pull up wikipedia's entry on the historical assassins. While there's a lot of myth and misinformation about them, the one thing that struck me about them is that they didn't avoid detection by hiding behind walls/bushes/in shadows (sneak), they did it by being a part of the crowd and not drawing attention to themselves (blend).
One thing the entry brings up is how one might appear as nothing more than another person at prayer, moving by their target and their identity only known after they shoved a blade in their target's ear.

That's what the assassin class seems to me. Getting to your target where their guard is down, posing as a member of his household (like as a servant), maybe taking up a job in a store he frequents. Learning his habbits, etc.

If you think an assassin is the type who sneaks into a fortified castle, sneaks by guards and poisons the target in his sleep (a la, the Japanese ninja) then maybe the Burglar class is more your speed.

[Doh, ninja'd by Nova.]

[Morfedel]

As I've said before, the Fantasy Craft assassin is not the "backstab from the shadows" kind. Active sneaking is what burglars do.

The Assassin is a partly social class. You use blend because you're NOT trying to go about undetected. You're mingling, mixing in with the crowd, or being an unassuming servant, or just plain looking like you belong where you are right now. This is either a natural talent or something learned from a lot of experience. No "hide in shadows" attempts or anything of the sort. You are where you are, and there's nothing suspicious about it at all.

As far as the watch captain trying to figure out "whodunit", a good blend means you were just one of the many unimportant guests at that big social function, or one of the many faceless, unimportant visitors in that building at the time, and thus in no way matter at all.

Get a courtier's help, or pay a bit of rep, and not only did you belong there, you were actually invited. You shook your victim's hand perhaps. You made small-talk. you found out a few things about his friends and enemies. You left on nice happy terms, the victim entirely unaware of the lethal toxins spreading through their bloodstream, or of the even more venomous words planted in someone's ears.

The assassin doesn't use facepaint. The assassin just "seemed like such a nice person, its unthinkable THEY would do something like that. it must have been that ork. He'd been grumbling about his employer for a while now and look how gruesome that body was".

I can't stop having fun with that class' abilities. Completely destructive, and not even combat-centric.

Yes, but the assassin is still trying to not be noticed; he's just trying to be part of the crowd, yes, to blend in to the background, which matches the name of the skill.

But the skill description says it's unconsciously used. That's different than blending into the background intentionally rather than being hidden.

[Nova]

That's why its generally used by the GM rather than declared by you.

Let's take a little kid at his parents party, who really should be in bed. First, the intent: Yes, whichever skill he uses, he intends to stay up and eat more little sandwiches and not have to be in bed. But how does he do it?

With blend, he's off chatting up some guests, doing his best to look like nothing's wrong at all. It is unconcious because his 'mastery' of this ability is all a matter of how well he can watch and time what he says, how he says it, and match his mannerisms to those around him so that they feel comfortable and don't come to think something is amiss. Some decent rolls, he's eating those chicken-salad-triangles for a good hour. Amazing ranks atop that, and his bedtime slipped mom and dad's mind entirely.

If he decides instead to sneak, not being noticed is paramount. This is far more active, as he has to avoid visual contact by getting under the tables, squeezing through denser clusters of crowd that won't notice just one more hand on a buttock, and essentially rolling directly against someone's visual acuity.

Of course, there's another alternative to blend... Sometimes you don't KNOW anyone is looking for you. If they're looking, and you have good blend, you do not stand out in the crowd. That is completely unconcious, but you still made use of the skill.