That Secret Project I teased earlier? Here’s a thing.
Glorious Battle
When you command your gathered forces, add up the Size of all the command and allies you choose to have present, secretly place a number of tokens in your hand up to the total Size, and roll + Prowess. If you’re fighting a PC, both do the same.
On a 10+, you may spend all your own tokens. On a 7-9, the GM or your opponent spends half your tokens, rounded up. They spend your tokens before you spend your own. On a 6-, the GM or your opponent spends all your tokens. They spend your tokens before you spend your own. Put all your spent tokens in a pile to the side.
Spend your tokens, one for one, on the following. PCs battling each other take turns spending them. You may make the same choice more than once:
* Meat Grinder: Reduce both side’s Size by 1. Their forces are dead or injured, you decide.
* Assassination: Kill an Ally leader or member of anyone’s Retinue.
* Champions: Engage the opposition’s force leader (PC or NPC) in a one-on-one fight. A PC may refuse.
* Zoom In: Have a PC display their heroism.
* Ruins: Cross out one tag on a Property involved in the battle. If there are no more tags, the property is in ruins and must be repaired as a Time Passes option.
* Atrocities: reduce the opponent’s size by 2 for each 1 of your force’s size. This will create a backlash: create a new Threat to the Realm, level 1, for the first atrocity and increase it by 1 for each additional atrocity.
* Desertion: Spend 1 size for no effect. Do not put the token in your “spent” pile; you do not have to reconcile them.
When you display your heroism, roll either +Spirit(Knight) or +Spirit(Monster), depending on what form you take during the battle. On a hit, your side wins the conflict. On a 7-9, pick 1, on a 10+, pick 2.
If you rolled +Spirit (Knight):
* You aren’t grievously wounded
* You capture an Ally leader
* Take two tokens out of your “spent” pile or add two tokens to your “size” hand, your choice.
If you rolled +Spirit (Monster):
* You aren’t grievously wounded
* You grievously wound an Ally leader
* Your forces panic at the sight of your brutality and strangeness. Reduce Size by 1 until Time Passes.
* Take two tokens out of your “spent” pile or add two tokens to your “size” hand, your choice.
On a miss, you lost the zoomed-in conflict and are now grievously wounded. Add two tokens to your “spent” pile to be reconciled in the Aftermath. If you rolled Spirit(Knight), and you must now test your bravery. If you rolled Spirit(Monster), you must now scurry from danger.
When you pay your forces after a battle, win or lose, add up all the tokens in your “spent” pile. Pay for each token, 1 for 1, out of your available treasury.
If you won the battle, you may also:
* Keep X Size in prisoners by paying X treasury.
* Keep an NPC prisoner for 1 treasury.
* Let the losers run free.
* Kill 2 survivors for each 1 size of your own you kill.
* Pillage to generate more treasury: 1 for a village, 2 for a town or keep, 3 for a city. Start a new Threat to the Realm, level 1, when you do this as the locals respond with outrage and foment revolution.
Each token not paid for results in a new Atrocity (see above) by your forces unless the Knight can stop them. Revert to regular scenes at this point.
If you lost the battle, your opponent will decide whether to capture or kill the leaders and the assembled forces. Dealing with the aftermath of a loss begins regular scenes again.
depending on what form you take during the battle
Hel-LO, nurse!
The third option, under “If your rolled plus Spirit (monster),” about your forces panicking, seems to be a problem instead of a victory like the other choices.
Am I missing something, or is it a typo?
With only a rudimentary understanding of PbtA systems…that’s a helluva resolution flow chart.
Jesse Cox it’s definitely a problem! Look at how many choices you get.
Adam Day it’s a little overwrought in its current form. If it’s too girthy in play I’ll find ways to trim it down.
The goal is for lots of complications and badness to fall out when you do something stupid like line up on a battlefield.
First draft!
Paul Beakley Sorry, I should mention that I don’t necessarily have a problem with it. I’m pretty good at rules breakdowns once I read through a book, so I understand what’s going on with your move(s). But maybe folks not so good at parsing rules would have issues. It’s dense, but I see where you’re headed and how it all works.
Just a little bit of (poorly worded, sorry) constructive criticism.
Oh I’m happy to take any and all reactions, thoughts, hate mail, etc.
Jesse Cox It’s definitely there for all sorts of fuckery. If Mr. Baker’s original text has taught me anything.
Shouldn’t that bit under Ruins: say “may” be repaired instead of “must” be repaired, or am I missing something?
Cake Flirt [Joseph Le May] yeah good call.
When you roll a 6- does the GM or opponent spend your tokens for you against themselves?
Timothy Stanbrough one assumes they’ll spend them on shitty choices, like desertion and atrocities.
I also wanted to leave open the possibility of provoking an enemy into single combat, or maybe even send out an ill-equipped pc on a sortie.
So, it’s something like “your opponent spend your tokens for you” ? At first read I thought they spent them on/for their own forces.
I dont get it. Why would I ever choose panic over, say, not being injured ?
Your opponent might choose it in your stead if you don’t roll 10+ ?
When you “reduce” an opponent’s Size, do their “reduced” size tokens go in the Spent pool? Or does this depend on whether they are Dead or Injured?
Can you only “win” a battle by Displaying your heroism? If so, what if neither side does that before all Size tokens are spent, does the conflict end in a draw?
In a conflict between PCs, when you roll a 7-9, can I initiate the conflict by spending one of your tokens to zoom in on my own PC? Alternately, can I spend your token (rather than my own) to initiate a dual between our two Champions?
When someone rolls a 7-9 and the other party spends their half first, do they spend all your tokens before you get a chance to spend your own?
The third option on Spirit(Monster) seem reversed (unless there’s a reason you’d want to frighten your own troops).
I see where you’re going with this, I think, and it is very very cool.
These are all good comments, thank you! I’ll make a bunch of clarifications in my actual draft.
The panic choice is reversed, yeah. You’d have to choose it to not panic, otherwise yeah your troops get demoralized. It’s the morale version of not getting injured.
The Glorious Battle stuff has additional text rules as well. Like, if you’re against an NPC, winning the battle depends on the NPC. “Size” (placeholder name, probably ends up being “might”) is sort of hit points as well as what gives you tokens to make choices. Some NPCs are beaten when you damage half their Size, some only when the NPC leader is defeated, some only when they’re all killed (zealots and crazies and whatnot).
If you’re fighting a PC, you both go ’til one of you concedes. Lost Size is hard to recover so just throwing your army into a meat grinder is not an awesome option.
Display Your Heroism is supposed to be an opportunity to gamble for more tokens and/or snipe a leader out of action. Right now you have to buy it but I think instead it’ll just be another thing that happens, maybe after the tokens get spent? Maybe before? Dunno.
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