I mentioned in a couple of places that I've been listening to Numenera actual play and picking up some thoughts that way. Ooh, poetry! Ahem. The one I've started with is The Roo Sack Gamers. They have a relatively small back catalogue, but with turns out to be because old episodes are shifted to Archive.org for hosting space reasons.
Numenera-wise, they've played through a couple of chapters (9 episodes at time of writing) in what's obviously a bit of an arc. I haven't picked up a clear indication of whether they're running prewritten stuff with added bits or largely homebrew content, though my instinct says the latter. I've found it pretty enjoyable to listen to, and because they're basically novices it's interesting to hear them working through rules issues and see their approach to the game. It seems noticeable that playing with lots of Effort and using high combat rolls to inflict penalties instead of extra damage makes the combat feel much more varied. They actually change their approach throughout the episodes (unconsciously, I think) as they sound out different playstyles, and talk about this a bit in ep 7ish.
Audiowise I found it good quality, very clear (very little cross-talk or ambient noise that I noticed) and pretty well-presented. Things like introducing yourselves at the start of episodes can make a difference to how easy things are to follow - I should probably think about that for our recordings... They also have a melodious array of what I would tentatively call southern US accents, but my expertise stops there.
It seems noticeable that playing with lots of Effort and using high combat rolls to inflict penalties instead of extra damage makes the combat feel much more varied
ReplyDeleteI suspect that might be the case, although I'd be interested to see whether it's actually *more effective*. A course of action that makes the game more interesting isn't always one that leads to not-getting-your-ass-kicked.
Well, you'll see...
DeleteBroadly speaking it's effective *sometimes*. I get the feeling that judging how and when to use Effort is a fairly significant element of skill in this system. Fairly early on there's a bit where they burn loads to great effect, then another where that plus very poor rolls backfires on them, and they waver after that. Whether it's better overall I still can't really tell and I'm sure it'll vary with level and Edge and pool size and pool used.
Characters who can use Speed or Intellect for combat-related Effort seem to have a notable advantage (because you can take damage in one pool and spend Effort from another). Setting up an enemy for a fall does seem a useful strategy, because the difficult changes are built into the system.
Whether it's better overall I still can't really tell and I'm sure it'll vary with level and Edge and pool size and pool used.
ReplyDeleteYou can probably work it out fairly easily, actually.
Using a Minor Effect to put the enemy at -1 Difficulty for a round is equivalent to 0.15 * PC Damage, for each PC. For our group of Glaive, Jack, Nano that would have been 0.15*10 = 1.5 damage total (since everybody except the glaive was doing 2 damage with Light weapons). That's strictly less good than the three damage you get from a Minor Effect, but strictly better than the 1 damage it takes to Distract under the optional damage-for-effect rule.
Also (sorry, hit reply too early) it's worth pointing out that *anybody* (as I understand it) can make Melee attacks using Speed. Only a fairly narrow range of PCs can use Intellect, however.
DeleteThat... looks right, although I kind of meant I couldn't tell whether how much using Effort on rolls was a useful strategy. NM. Interesting to note that the value of effect-for-penalty will tend to be greater in a larger party. Disarming also comes up, which is a handy option.
DeleteThinking about it, attacking for disadvantage is also presumably quite useful when armour comes into the equation. If you've only got a light weapon, you can still try something to drop the enemy's success rate.
That's very true, although it cuts the other way as well - the more armour the NPCs have the less additional damage the party can be expected to do when they hit. And reducing your opponent's hit rate just delays the inevitable.
DeleteEffort is easier to work out in some ways, harder in others. Each point of effort is 0.15*Damage additional damage (if spent to increase chance to hit) and 3*Chance to hit if spent for damage. Effort for Damage is, I suspect, strictly better most of the time, as long as chance to hit is greater than 30% (and even more so if you're using a light or medium weapon).