So we got through our third session today and a couple more questions came up during play.
First - Do Killing Strike and the Intense weapon quality stack? As in will a character with an Intense weapon and Killing Strike who deals a wound to a mob/squad kill two minions or does he kill three minions?
I’ve been allowing it to kill three because they’re minions so I haven’t really cared, but I also want to make sure we’re doing it correctly.
Second - Can you use a Bossonian Longbow on horseback? I know there are no hard and fast rules that say you can’t but I kind of figured that the Hykanian horse bow was specifically designed to be used from horseback so I was wondering what others opinions on the idea are. I’m wondering if I should allow any bow to be used form horseback but increasing the difficulty by 1 unless it’s the Hyrkanian horse bow - basically house ruling a Quality for it.
Killing strike and Intense do stack. Can be a very deadly combo.
Bossonian longbow is far to big to be used on horseback. As a matter of fact, its too big in most indoor environments as well. So can be good for an archer to have a backup bow for those cases.
The Intense quality and Killing Strike talent stack, but the way the Harms are spread out between the minions work differently. The extra harm caused by Intense does not carry over to another minion, because this is how minions work (Attacking Groups section), but in the Killing Strike talent is is explicitly stated that you can affect another minion with this overkill. This is the price you pay for 2 momentum and talent
In regards to the Bossonian longbow question - the only statement in the text is that the weapon is tall as a man with extra range and punch, but that’s about it. I might add extra difficulty if you use it at tight spaces…
Thanks for the responses, much appreciated and it prompted me to check a couple of things and I found something about the bows and horseback.
There is a rule in the mounted combat section that states that ranged attacks while mounted receive a +1 Difficulty increase and in the description of the bows it states that the horse bow can be fired from horseback with no penalty. So this comes down to literally two lines of text in the whole book to provide this rule. I think the horse bow should have a Quality so that it’s more apparent that it can be used on horseback with no penalty and another line of text added to the Bow descriptions reminding the reader that bows on horseback receive a difficulty increase of one.
Something to note (and something I missed until recently)
Action scene momentum spends (from the table on page 118,) can only be spent with momentum generated by that character.
So a character cannot use 2 momentum from the group pool to trigger swift action, and characters cannot use the 1 remaining momentum in a pool before the end of the round as a second wind to negate it from being depleted pointlessly at the end of that round (they need to use their own momentum and to make the choice on their own turn).
Any of these spends have to come from the momentum that character generates that turn and not from the group pool.
Whether this is RaI (rules as intended) or not is unknown but it is certainly RaW (rules as written) and it ended up making combat feel a heck of a lot better for my group.
It does seem intended though and the separation of the group momentum and character momentum pools finally makes sense to me (when in the past I always treated it as a single pool that went back to 6 max at the start of every turn).
(this has no impact on usual spends of momentum like buying dice, hindering or introducing a new element)
Oh and regarding minion/mob deaths, remember that you choose the one to take a harm if you are negating an effect like stun or knockdown. This can be one that is already being harmed and is good for keeping minion groups alive a bit longer and players from feeling too much like wheat threshing machines.
Wow… that is kind of a game changer when it comes to combat spends with momentum. I had a character buy penetration 5 on top of like 3 other effects with one attack. Thus far in my game we’ve found the combat people tend to spend everyone’s momentum while the non-combat characters tend to make it. This would balance that out and make a lot more sense.
Yup, I really like it and so much of the system makes more sense to me now.
It gives a much greater feel of a character generating momentum actually being impactful for that character.
I have noticed that my players have ended up being a bit more creative and varied with their spends which then resulted in more heroic play. It has a really nice knock on effect.
One thing to note though, it isn’t clear whether action scene spends that come from other locations (like killing strike) would be able to use group momentum or not. I would probably rule them like any of the momentum spends from the table (only allowed with momentum that character generates) as that works really well for my group. But a compelling argument can be made that unlike the options in the action scene spends table talents like killing strike are a part of the character and should be more readily available.
But yeah, having it so momentum spends for momentum that you did not generate is much more limited changed the way the game was played for my group and I am sad that it took me that long to figure it out -laughs-
I am curious where you read that and interpreted as only spends from your roll. I have read the momentum rules multiple times and don’t read it that way.
“During any successful test, a character may spend Momentum saved in the group Momentum pool instead of or in addition to any points generated from the successful skill test itself, spending from either or both as desired.”
My read is that characters can always use pool Momentum so long as they have made a successful test or they are using pool Momentum prior to a test on an Immediate spend.
That’s what I read as well. What momentum you roll is yours until your turn is done then it goes into the group pool if you have any left. But you could use what you rolled and also what’s in the group pool as well. The action momentum spend table are things you can spend momemntum on during an action scene. So yes you could spend from the group pool to get a second action.
Page 118 folks, it is confusing but it is specifically referring to momentum spends from a defined table.
Not all momentum spends.
“The table above provides a number of additional options available to a character generating 1 or more points of Momentum in combat. These are in addition to the normal uses of Momentum and any others that players or gamemaster create themselves.”
They are additional momentum spends that become available to a character generating momentum.
It may not be RAI (we would need jason to chime in on that) but it is RAW.
Exceptions almost always supersede general in system design.
I would like to mention that this interpretation in no way conflicts with the momentum description from page 102.
“During any successful skill test, a character may spend
Momentum saved in the group Momentum pool instead of or in addition to any points generated from the successful skill test itself, spending from either or both as desired…”
This still applies, it is what you can spend momentum on that changes with the interpretation. As the table with action scene spends is distinctly separate from other momentum spends.
Official Clarification: Momentum spends from the combat momentum table can be paid for with saved Momentum. There aren’t actually any restrictions on where you can spend Momentum from (Immediate Momentum spends differ by timing, not source - they can be used at times when the group’s shared pool is the only source of Momentum).
