Issue One of the Goblinville Gazette · By
I'm about to run my first game, and one part of the rules confuses me. If a player introduces a Twist in order to help another goblin's Action, does the helping player take their Action Die off of the initiative track for the roll? Or is the Twist represented by the general dice?
It seems like this has a big impact on how much help the goblins can give per turn, because helping would take their action for the turn.
Thanks! That's how my first reading went, but then I second guessed myself as I was preparing to play.
Our first game went pretty well. We all loved the system, but we missed some stuff (as tends to happen with first time plays...). One thing that came up was that sometimes goblins would want to do something that would definitely succeed, but a danger seemed to be involved. I didn't know how to handle that, because it didn't seem right to have a danger roll without an action roll. In hindsight, I think these should have ended up being grim favor rolls. Any advice for situations like that?
Yeah! Glad to hear you loved it. That's rad. And I've found it holds up ok if you miss a couple of rules: the core resolution makes sure players have interesting choices.
Your question is a good one. Making sure there's always a risky action and a danger keeps situations dynamic: players will rarely get everything they want. That said, it can take practice for the GM to smoothy distinguish actions and dangers. If there are dangers around, but the players aren't taking risky actions, there's no need to make a roll. Keep that danger in your backpocket.
That said, often a danger makes an otherwise simple action risky. Crossing a room is easy, crossing a room with lava pits is not. The action is make it across, the danger is mark panicked. You could keep your cool but wind up stranded on a narrow ledge (someone will have to help you out). You could make it across but be panicked. Or maybe you're lucky and you get through with a cool head.
Your insinct to use Grim Favor rolls to resolve risks that aren't tied to the goblin's actions is spot on. If there's an escalating situation (like a cave-in) you can roll Grim Favor to see how bad it is. You can also just escalate problems at the end of the turn. You have a moment to think about that stuff while players are rolling back into Marching Order.
One thing to keep in mind is that these rolls are narrative beats, they punctuate a moment of uncertainty where events could take a turn for the worse. If the current situation isn't that interesting, that's fine. Say yes (the action succeeds) and keep following those goblins around until they get into some real trouble.
If you have specific examples of where you were unsure how to resolve, I'd love to hear them. Real world examples tend to be the most useful.
Here's one example I remember: The goblins were tasked with entering an orc camp that had previously been raided and pillaged by human adventurers. The goblins were to find any leftover treasure and bring it home. A palisade of wooden spears surrounded the camp, which I used as a barrier to get inside and as something for a Shrike Fly to impale goblins on (cool monster design, btw!).
Upon defeating the barrier, the goblins entered the camp to find a bunch of dead orcs being picked over by a murder of crows. I wanted to have the crows be disturbed by the goblins entering, and have a chance for them to fly up and swarm the goblins, cawing at them, and then flying away. I didn't want a full encounter with crows, I only wanted the goblins to have a chance to panic. It felt like a danger just for entering the area, which in hindsight maybe is an unfair situation to begin with? I didn't want to just declare they panic, either, so it felt like a danger roll without any action.
Do you think a grim favor roll would work here? Perhaps 1-2 means they panic, and a 6 means they get to be put into a good position somehow? Or do you think it sounds like an unfair situation to have something happen here before they have a chance to take an action in the area?
Ah cool, I wouldn't do a grim favor there because then something bad happened to the players and they had no choice or decision point that led to it. I would just have the crows swarm them and and start picking at them aggressively. That puts the ball in the players' court. What do they do? If they want to drive them off, that's an action roll. Maybe they goblins will scare them crows off, but maybe they'll panic.
You can still resolve that in a single roll, rather than an extended conflict, but they players are driving the action. They know what's at risk and they have the opportunity to try avoid it. Maybe things will spiral from there, but maybe not. Alternately, if you just want to convey 'this place is scary' you can do that in your description, without touching the mechanics.
Your instinct not to inflict conditons without a roll is spot-on. Goblins mark conditions from failed rolls, or if the fourth turn ends and they haven't made camp. Conditions are pretty bad, and they snowball sometimes. Keep throwing problems at the goblins and you'll see conditions stack up quickly enough.
Thanks for all the help. I ran the same adventure again, but this time for a different group. When I got to the crows, I did as you suggested, turning them into something to deal with immediately. I had the crows get up in their business and told them if they ignored the crows it would put them in a bad position, then asked what the first goblin what they wanted to do. On their action, I made the danger be that they would panic from the crows.
It worked great. It didn't change the tone, really, but the rules felt more fair to everyone, and it still made the crows take roughly the same amount of real time to deal with.
Thanks for making this game!
