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Idea for a party bestiary mechanic

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 7:30 am
by Azrael Macool
So, I kind of just came up with this while I was zoned out at work today, and it might not really need addressing at all. But it occurred to me that, I don't want the players to straight-up know the stats of the enemies they fight, but then again, it can be useful sometimes for them to know their stats when planning and stuff like that. So a basic idea I had was, at the beginning of combat (even before rolling for Battle advantages), you may make a Lore roll to see what you remember/know about the enemy in question. Each player makes the roll (if they want), in the order of highest Lore to lowest (the order may matter). Traits like Enemy-lore would apply to the roll as normal. Each degree of success reveals a fact about the enemy. Those are determined by the LM, but would generally start with the specific enemy type (for instance, you know at the beginning that you are fighting orcs, but a success would mean that you know that 2 of them are Goblin Archers), special abilities, then things like weapon skills, protection ratings, Attributes, skills, hate, endurance, etc. An Eye (whether successful or not) would mean that you're actually mistaken about something, giving your character a -2 penalty on the next combat check against the particular enemy you're facing (figured that would work better than telling the players an actual lie). In addition, since the rolls aren't hidden, they would figure out things during the battle (for instance, if they score a piercing blow, and the opponent only rolls 1 success die, then they would know that the creature has a protection of 1d). As they figure out all the facts about the enemy they're fighting, one of the players should write this information down for the Party's Bestiary. If they have every detail about the enemy, then the LM should tell them, and finally grant an Advancement Point to the player-hero that finally fully fleshed out the creature's entry. This Advancement Point should generally be used for the Vocation skill group, but Perception may work as well (especially if it was earned without rolling).

Anyway, I know it's a little complicated, and most people wouldn't really want or need a rule for this kind of thing. I just thought it'd be an interesting way to learn about your opponents. Does anyone have any ideas that would make this better?