I’ve been going through the book in prep for my game on Sunday and am trying to figure out how the Ruin Pool works. Is it just a separate pool of Doom that can be used?
Also when using the Ruin Size Table (page 94) is it the Areas or the Zones that determines the Ruin Pool Maximum size.
It’s our first time using the Ruins generator but looks to be fun and exciting times once I figure this out.
Hello! I have the book but have not gotten to use it in play yet. My reading of the phrase “repeat this step” in the Procedural Generation Steps makes me think that you add the two Ruin Pool values together to get the maximum pool size for the ruin.
I think that the pool starts with a number of points already in it equal to the number of players. It then goes up by 1 when: the GM adds 1 point of Doom, or an Area is explored. If it ever gets to (number of players) x 2, then the Cliffhanger for the ruin should be triggered. Can’t have more points in it than the max, like you were already saying.
A Cliffhanger is also triggered if the Ruin Pool gets to 0. I take it to be that Ruin Pool points can be spent instead of Doom to cause effects, but it is not clear to me why the GM would not just spend Doom like normal. I suppose it is so that, no matter how the game goes, the pressure is usually increasing that a Cliffhanger could happen.
It looks like it is mainly the pool hitting the upper limit that would normally trigger the Cliffhanger, with the GM having the option to trigger it early; either by creating effects and spending the pool down to 0, or by adding Doom to the Ruin Pool.
My reading anyway, cheers and hope you are having a blast!
That’s my thought as well. It does, like many things, seem more complex than it needs to be but the general thought is awesome.
Last Conan campaign I ran was before I had this book so it never got used but as soon as I got it I was definitely interested in using it.