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[Mephisto]

MCG is what I suppose you could call a progressive company. As the name implies, Monte Cook, of D&D 3.5's Ptolus, Arcana [Unearthed|Evolved] and Book of Vile Darkness fame is involved. Another big name is Shanna Germain, who writes a pretty good Numenera book series but got her start in erotic novels before writing No Thank You, Evil, MCG's RPG for children.

[Jimmy]

Here's a somewhat particular question for you all:

Some of my colleagues have approached me about running an intro Pathfinder module to pass the time during an upcoming work excursion. Of the two who have already definitely indicated their interest, one has previously played a bit of D&D and the other has vague memories of hearing about it.

We've got nine hours of transit time to kill each way, so I wouldn't mind something intended to last more than a session, and as both of them are keen Game of Thrones fans I had thought of running Crownfall. How bad an idea is that?

So as a disclaimer, I haven't run or played Crownfall, but here's my two copper pieces on the matter.

First, the main author of the scenario is Thurston 'Thursty' Hillman, who's awesome. I've run many of his other written scenarios, specifically the Pathfinder Society modules which are made for organized play, and they're always top notch. Thursty has a solid grasp of melding game mechanics with good storytelling, and I've never been disappointed with any of his published works.

Crownfall is almost universally praised for its story arc and gameplay. The premise is a good one, with royal intrigue, although if you're not a huge fan of Golarion lore you might not get as much out of the scenario.

However, if you only have two nine hour sessions, I don't know how far you'll get through it, especially if you're building characters at the table instead of prior to the game. Also, if you're spending time explaining rules to new players, that'll slow down the game too. Also, you mentioned you're in transit, so I don't know how well you can play without a tabletop to use for minis and dice.

[Trekkin]

-snip-

So as a disclaimer, I haven't run or played Crownfall, but here's my two copper pieces on the matter.

First, the main author of the scenario is Thurston 'Thursty' Hillman, who's awesome. I've run many of his other written scenarios, specifically the Pathfinder Society modules which are made for organized play, and they're always top notch. Thursty has a solid grasp of melding game mechanics with good storytelling, and I've never been disappointed with any of his published works.

Crownfall is almost universally praised for its story arc and gameplay. The premise is a good one, with royal intrigue, although if you're not a huge fan of Golarion lore you might not get as much out of the scenario.

However, if you only have two nine hour sessions, I don't know how far you'll get through it, especially if you're building characters at the table instead of prior to the game. Also, if you're spending time explaining rules to new players, that'll slow down the game too. Also, you mentioned you're in transit, so I don't know how well you can play without a tabletop to use for minis and dice.

As for the logistics, we'll have access to the equivalent of a card table. I was also thinking of partly pregenerating a set of characters anyway.

I think I can pull this off now. Thanks!

[Kagus]

So after some very light skimming of user responses, it looks like Numenera is a very narrative-heavy system with very little combat focus and and a combat system that reflects that. Also very reliant on the GM's leadership and spontaneous creativity.

"One interesting aspect of skills is that the game doesn't really have a list of them. Instead, it is up to the player to create what skills his character knows, and the GM to decide if they are too generic."

Gah. There are plenty of folks out there who think stuff like this is awesome, but I'm very much not one of them. I like concrete rules, and defined limits for playing around in.

"the GM can at any time intrude the flow of the story to determine something has happened (that is, an intrusion). When he does so, however, he gives the most obviously affected character 1 experience point (XP) and another to another character chosen by the first player (this choice can be based on any criteria the player wants)."

But, of course, there's no definition of what is an Intrusion versus what simply is, as per GM fiat. It's just up to the GM to decide what is and isn't worth playing the XP game for, which is particularly noteworthy because this is the primary way PCs get XP. And then the players also determine the handing out of XP because... Well, because of reasons, surely.

Well... It might be the primary way of gaining XP. The other way is by making "discoveries", which are also determined by the GM when considering what is and isn't a discovery.

And then there are the cyphers, and I'm not really sure what to think about them.



I dunno. I can apparently get the core books for $1 (it's a little unclear on the Humble page as to which books are rulebooks, and which books are adventures or "philosophical supplements"), but... Eh?

[Trekkin]

I dunno. I can apparently get the core books for $1 (it's a little unclear on the Humble page as to which books are rulebooks, and which books are adventures or "philosophical supplements"), but... Eh?

I'd skip it. Numenera was still riding the PbtA high in which anything with rules, let alone numbers, was a dirty trad game that will get in the way of deeply fulfilling and emotional bleedplay and is therefore badwrongfun. IWNAY, IWNAY, Jenna Moran fhtag'n.

[Mephisto]

Numenera may be a bit light in the rules department, but emotional play? No. I dislike Jenna and her Morans as much as the next person who is capable of describing a game without using the same four buzzwords again and again but, as far as Cypher games go, it's patently false.

[Trekkin]

Numenera may be a bit light in the rules department, but emotional play? No. I dislike Jenna and her Morans as much as the next person who is capable of describing a game without using the same four buzzwords again and again but, as far as Cypher games go, it's patently false.

My apologies; I was unclear. It's not an emotional game by any stretch, but it was written in 2012-2013 when the majority of indie games were trying to capitalize on their popularity, and it ticks a lot of the boxes: rules-light, xp-as-bennies-as-complications-as-roll-bonuses (like everyone ripped off of FATE), "concept-driven" Mad Libs character creation, sex rules, and that weird thing where players give each other XP. It's another attempt at a traditional game for Moran cultists, and while some of them still sing its praises as a way for silly boys to have their magical toys and yet get used to real games, I haven't encountered many people from either camp who haven't found a better way to do what they're trying to make it do.

[scriver]

The stats of a bear with the abilities of a big cat should do.

[Hanslanda]

The stats of a bear with the abilities of a big cat should do.

And fast healing (arbitrary amount)

[Criptfeind]

Wolverines are much much smaller then bears, even a small black bear is going to be an order of magnitude larger. 3.5 calls them medium animals but tbh I don't see how you'd justify anything bigger then small.

I'd upgrade a badger, a couple more hp, upscale the damage from 1 to something like 1d4 and maybe +1 or +2, and maybe give them a rage ability if you want, takes damage and gets +4 strength and con?

[ShinQuickMan]

From a look, giant badgers would represent wolverines just fine. They're a match for cougars and individual wolves, which more or less follows real-life expectations for wolverines.

[Hanslanda]

... A wolverine or Wolverine?

[IcyTea31]

In general, if you want to stat a critter, the first step is to see if you can use the stats of another thing, maybe modifying them a little. I remember a published module where a sheep's stats were just copy-pasted from a horse.

[scriver]

Wolverines are much much smaller then bears, even a small black bear is going to be an order of magnitude larger.

It's not a matter of size, it's a matter of attitudd

[scriver]

Doubkepost because it's been long enough: I happened to mention the story of the word for bear being taboo and my father lended me his book "Mammals in Swedish Folkly Tradition" which has super interesting info on a lot of things (did you know for example that people used to keep weasels as pest-hunters, similar to cats? Well, at least attempted to - attempts to permanently domesticise them failed, obviously, but having a weasel on a farm was considered very lucky and a good boob) and here is some more names for bear I found in it:

Björnkarl: "Bear Man", or "Brown Man" since that's what bear means in turn. "Karl" also means something more like "(free) man" rather than just "man", insinuating that it has no master. It's female equivalent is "björnkäring".

Fnasken/Fnaskus/Nasken/Naskus: "the snacker"/"the muncher"

Bjässe: Formed from björn, synonymous with something very big in modern Swedish

Billing: Means "Twin", used for bear cubs (they often have litters of two)

Billingmor: "Twinmother", used for bear mummies

Björntass/Björntafs: "Bearpaw" or "Brownpaw", used for small/adolescent bears ("Its not a big bear, just a small bearpaw")

Barfot, Skolös, Hallös: "Barefoot", "Shoeless", "Hall-less", and similar names. Often used in definite or "referring" forms ("the Barefoot" or "Old Shoeless") or with a name ("Barefoot Tom")

Ofreden: literally "the Un-Peace". Used for bears who savaged or killed animals or people. "Ravager" or similar might be closer to what it means.

Gullfot: "Goldpaw". Just one letter from the "Gulfot" ("Yellowpaw") I mentioned in the previous post, might be the same. Possibly a reference to eating honey?

Lots of names referring to elders: Godfar ("Goodfather"), Skogsfar ("Forest-/Woodfather"), Storfar ("Greatfather"), Gammeln ("The Old"/"the Elder"), Gubben (an old man, closest equivalent is probably "Gabber", like how Samwise Gamgi refers to his old man in LotR), Stor-gubben ("Great Gabber")

Some myths that was mentioned was the belief that the bear slept on one side half the winter, then turned over in her aleep in the middle of winter and slept on that side for the second half. So one had to be careful around a certain day or time (specifics vary from region to region) and not perform noisy chores or work like chopping wood or threshing, or you could disturb the bear in her sleep and then she'd seek revenge against you, your animals, or household in summertime.

They also preferred to bury people alive instead of killing them, if they had time - and particularly preyed on pregnant women and even more particularly on women pregnant with boys.

Friendly or pleased trolls could grant you a "trollbjörn" ("troll bear", but I hardly have to translate that I think - keep in mind though that "troll" is synonymous with magic or doing magic, so it also means "magic bear") to watch over and protect your farm and household. They were also called "giftbears".

Nefarious Sami witchmen (often the culprits in old Swedish tales from the border regions between the nations) would turn into bears and beastly were-bears during the night and eat your livestock if you angered them.

Bear gall was considered very a very potent curative. Helped against acidious stomachs, instilled appetite, tooth ache, birth pains, frost burns, kidney ails, and inflammation if the lung (I can't remember your fancy latin word for it right now). The book mentions that in the 18th century it was mixed with brännvin (brandy, "burn-wine", you know, booze) but no mention of how it was prepared before distillated booze was invented.

Bear blood was also considered a healing aid, particularly against epilepsy.  Bear fat was used as salves and balms "for a great deal of ailments" but no mention of specifics I'm that case.

Super interesting book! I highly recommend it.