MESMERISM IN SKELOS: Please, help!

I paste this issue here, even if I’ve already asked about so many times in G+…but I still feel we do not have all the answers that we need.
And Conan G+ is doomed to be deleted…so here I am.

The Sorcery FAQ was amazing!
But, after all of this time…we still SERIOUSLY need an ERRATA document.
Especially US, the backers who got their first wave with printed books which will not going to be fixed, since they will remain forever printed like that…

I really do not care about errors in “Jewels” (which are too many in any case) but Skelos has errors in essential parts which do not allow the rules to be properly used.

I refer here to MESMERISM, which should be a huge part of the genre…if it was better explained in Skelos!!

Jason Durall was so kind to give us a scheme of Mesmerim in the G+ group.
I paste it here, if it may be useful:
"

  1. Attempt to place subject in mesmeric trance with a Sorcery vs. Discipline Struggle. Difficulty is Average (D1) (the default Difficulty for everything if not otherwise stated).

  2. If desired, attempt a mesmeric technique. You can choose to combine the trance and the effect in the initial test/Struggle, or handle them separately… first the trance, then a technique later. If you have already put the subject in a mesmeric trance, use the modifier as the Difficulty.

  3. Spend Momentum as desired. "

However…I still feel there are so many problems in the Mesmerism description (Skelos Pages 82-87).

Here are my Doubts which I paste from the g Group (They were never answered).

    • The "“Subject” momentum spends.
      How can it be that I put somebody into mesmeric trance (with Sorcery vs Discipline struggle, etc…)…and later I just spend momentum to affect more people!!
      I can always try to mesmerize the one with lower discipline, and then enlarge the effect only by spending momentum to tougher victims!
      I know that as a GM I should use common sense to block such things, but it really sounds like a not well designed mechanic.
  1. Page 84, second column, first paragraph….why is this referring to “Resolve Soak”?? Shouldn’t it be just Sorcery VS Discipline struggle?

  2. Page 84, “Mesmerist techniques” you finally speak about the struggle but it’s confusing with the previous paragraph’s mention of Soak.

  3. “Mesmerism” table on page 85…is this table what you call “Mesmerism Techniques”?
    And, if so, why does it start with +1 Dificulty? What you get with basic 1 Difficulty without that +1?
    The “+” pat of the table is confusing.

  4. “ Mesmerism and other skills”. Can you please give us an example of HOW it works with other skills?

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Hi Luca. I loved the sorcery FAQ that we got last summer :slight_smile: So very good and would be GREAT to get an offical document with art and such. . I also wait patiently for our dear staff of modiphius to release the clarification around the nice book; skelos. Know that they are now struggling to get off wave 2 and maybe they will get time soon :smiley: .

They have taken their time, but then we have actually got a very good game system, beautiful books that are faithful to the conan world. So I just want to be clear that I love what we got from them earlier on wave 1 and what we have seen so far of wave 2.

Great post by the way Luca.
Now let’s have a barbaric party :smile:

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I kind of remember some Modiphius guy mentioning ages ago some version of the errata for their own, internal use.
It may be nice if they give is at least that preliminary thing, just to be updated later on.

Many companies (although off course not all) do that.

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Hi. Thanks for mentioning the FAQ (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K0yUKlg1EYugfKZSWLaJk2Pav_qm_qm_2uXuD_Dkt6o/edit), I just learned its existence :slight_smile:. Regarding your questions (please note that this is by no means an official answer, just my two cents):

  1. I would say that just to include more people in the test, you have to pay some Momentum, but they resist individually. For example, a mesmerist first targets Commoner1. The mesmerist gets 4 successes, C1 gets one. Thus, M has 3 Momentum and C1 is in a trance. M then pays 2 Momentum for an additional subject and tries to affect Commoner2. At this point, M has 1 Momentum. If C2 gets 2 successes, then it’s a tie, if not, he or she is in a trance and M has 1 Momentum left.

  2. I assume that a target gets bonus Momentum on a test to resist equal to their Resolve Soak. It makes someone with Courageous and a good Discipline Focus nigh immune to mesmerism but I think it is intended. After all one only gets 4 talents at character creation and not even Courageous is an auto-pick.

  3. +1 Momentum gives Difficulty increases to the target. With basic Difficulty, the mesmerist can subsitute Sorcery for social skills, which is already something.

  4. As often, a bonus on an action translates to bonus d20, d20-rerolls or bonus Momentum. So, I would say that you place the target (animal to handle, people to counsel or yourself to discipline, in the latter case replace the result of an opposed test by D2) in a trance, then use the Momentum of the sorcery test to bolster your next roll or as bonus Momentum.

Courageous isn’t an “auto-pick” but, as Talents are relatively inexpensive to raise compared to Attributes and Skills, it’s likely a frequent early buy for many PCs.

True. Still, I think this bonus and the bonus momentum from Mesmerist (which I forgot to take into account in my example) balance out. For the moment, my PCs have favored more offensive talents though.

To expand on the use of mesmerism to help with other skills: of course, using momentum gained to bolster subsequent rolls is as always an option, but it is also possible to create a stronger synergy.
In chapter 5 of the corebook, “Action scenes”, two such rules are described, Exploit and Charge. In both cases, each point of Momentum from the first test gives +1d20 to the attack roll (up to the normal limit) and +1cd, ie a bonus to the scope of success that the player cannot choose freely (for example, they cannot choose to disarm the target instead as with Momentum). Therefore, you could use a similar mechanic here. For example with Animal handling, each Momentum of the Sorcery roll gives +1d20 on the AH roll and allows to keep the animal obedient for 10 more minutes (or to give an extra order); +1d20 on the Command roll and gives 1 cd of Courage Soak to the target; when used with Resistance to recover, allows to ignore 1 Wound for 1 round per Momentum (repeatable), etc.

I feel by common sense you are right…BUT maybe you could be wrong by common 2d20 practices in other kinds of situations…

  1. Skelos rules are TERRIBLY written, since, if you read it LITERALLY, it looks like they make you spend momentum AT THE END, after the first roll has been done.
    I’m sure what you say sound right, since it makes sense, but we NEED an official Errata on the Skelos text.

  2. Auto-hit against multiple target AFTER a previous target was already hit already happens in this system. (E.G. the “Secondary Target” momentum spends of combat, which cannot be resisted with a reaction, since you already have got momentum, so struggle calculations already happened…).

It’s a mess of a text!!

The whole magic system is all over the place, I find it hard to use and so far have improvised as there are no player characters that are casters. The wall of texts are better than Exalted 2e, but still I believe it can be presented in better way.

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